


Westward; Eastbound

by WanderlustandFreedom



Series: Descendants Short Stories and One Shots [17]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Cheating, Divorce, Dragon Mal (Disney), Extramarital Affairs, F/M, Fae Mal (Disney), Forbidden Love, Government, Isle of the Lost (Disney) is a Terrible Place, Marriage, Protective Mal (Disney), Ruler of Auradon Ben (Disney: Descendants), United States of Auradon (Disney) Is Not Perfect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:55:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 46,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23130568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WanderlustandFreedom/pseuds/WanderlustandFreedom
Summary: Nineteen months after leaving the VK's behind forever, the barrier to the Isle of the Lost is severed. Maleficent escapes and Auradon Castle is immediately attacked. Now, Ben has to take his family to the VK's for refuge from Mal's escaped mother. Mal's his last hope... but she's also Ben's biggest weakness... one he knows he'd go back to in a heartbeat.
Relationships: Ben/Audrey Rose (Disney: Descendants), Ben/Mal (Disney: Descendants), PastMaleficent/Hades
Series: Descendants Short Stories and One Shots [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1593727
Comments: 44
Kudos: 64





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Westward; Eastbound - Part 1
> 
> I do not own Disney Descendants.
> 
> To be updated in parts. Also included with my Oneshots Collections

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

Ben crept around the coffee table with a grin plastered onto his face. He spotted a pair of light purple and pink-spotted socks peeking out from behind a heavy grey curtain and jumped forward to brush them away. A doll fell forward onto the floor beside his feet. Bamboozled again.

"Oh, come on!" He complained, turning to look back around the room. "You need to play fair!"

A giggle sounded from behind the couch. Ben pivoted and leaned over, but there was no one there. He wasn't to be fooled again though, so he flipped open the lid of the blanket basket and laughed when his eight-year-old looked up with a shocked expression. "Found you!" He exclaimed.

"What?" She squawked. "You _never_ look there!"

"Are you keeping track?" He laughed. "I didn't think you _could_ fit in there."

"I'm stuck," Belle nodded. "Can you help me out?"

Ben began to laugh in earnest as he leaned down and pried his wayward daughter out of her hiding place. It was a miracle she'd been able to fit. The basket was barely as big as she was. Belle finally stood up amongst the blankets and dusted off her blue dress. "Ugh, it was so stuffy in there," she snorted, holding her head up high. Ben rolled his eyes as she glanced over towards the window and let out a dramatic gasp. "You knocked Molly over!" she exclaimed and jumped out of the basket to rescue the doll.

"I was busy looking for you!" Ben protested as she scooped up the doll, which was half as big as she was, and combed its hair in a comforting manner. The doll was made of plastic and had the dimensions of a real-life toddler. It had been designed for a medical class so technicians could learn CPR and other lifesaving procedures for children. A pediatrician had brought one to Belle's public school and she'd been so impressed that she'd come home and taken up dozens of extra chores to earn one. She was a far cry from the Belle who would have thrown a tantrum for the thing. Ben honestly hated it. It made alarm sounds if you turned it upside down for too long or if it was trapped under something heavy or if something knocked into it hard. There was also a computer feature on it where it would cry every so often and you had to feed it or cradle it or do something to make it stop. It was supposed to mimic an actual child, but it only made it all the more creepy. Belle adored it, but Ben made her switch off the automatic crying every night before she went to bed.

Ben sighed and crouched down beside Belle as she checked the doll's arm, listened for breathing, and then went back to combing her brown hair. "Is she okay?" He asked.

Belle nodded. "I think so," she agreed and then adjusted the doll's dress so it fit better against the doll's body."

"Your Majesty?" Someone called from the door. Ben looked up. The door had been left open and a footman was now waiting in the doorway.

"Yes?" Ben asked, standing up straight and fixing the cuffs on his shirt.

"You're needed in your office," the foreman informed him. "It'll only be a moment."

Ben nodded and patted Belle on the shoulder. "You can stay here," he told her, "Or you can go find Mom. I think she went for a walk after she got off work."

"I have to stay here and make sure Molly doesn't have any bruises," Belle huffed dramatically. She flipped over her wrist and examined her pink plastic watch. It had come in a children's meal from a fast-food restaurant they'd stopped at on their way home from a meeting and she liked it more than the glass-face watch Audrey had gotten for her years ago. This was a toy Ben approved of - he could give her the day's schedule and she'd meticulously write in her assignments alongside his and every once in a while come back to him to compare his watch to hers and make sure both were correct. "Oh, and it's almost nap time and I haven't picked out a book for her!"

"Naptime?" Ben asked. "What about lunch?"

"It can wait," Belle huffed. "Or, actually-" she glanced at her watch again and furrowed her brow. "No, it can't! I have to go to the library afterward to pick out a book to show Grandma and then Mom's going to be here to take me to the park!" She threw her head back in exasperation. "There's not enough time in the day!"

"Your majesty?" The footman called from the door.

"Coming!" Ben got to his feet and crossed the room quickly. The footman began to walk ahead of him to his office, glancing back at every corner to make sure he was still coming. Ben followed to the office and discovered that three people were inside, waiting for him. It was the Charming family, consisting of Chad, his wife Alexis, and their son Liam. "Chad!" Ben exclaimed, stepping forward and clapping his old friend on the back as they exchanged a hug. "It's marvelous to see you again!"

"Hello, Ben," Chad returned the hug, but not with as much enthusiasm. They broke apart and Ben took a seat behind his desk. Everyone else sat down in front of him without being prompted. Chad didn't even take the time to re-introduce his son and mention that he was sitting in on this meeting for future training or anything. Ben frowned.

"We have news," Chad explained without being prompted. "An emergency, I'm afraid. It came to my attention late last night and we came straight away to inform you in person." He withdrew a photo from a file case that had been set on a seat and slid a photo forward to Ben. Ben leaned forward and frowned. He recognized it immediately. It was the Isle of the Lost. And, near the old port where the magical bridge would be conjured up if anyone ever decided to go over, there was a visible hole underneath it.

"How long has that been there?" Ben asked, picking up the photo to examine it further. It was quite a wide rip… maybe thirty feet across.

"Since two days ago," Chad admitted. "My overseers saw it open and tried to remotely close it, but I'm afraid the equipment is rather old and… well, it doesn't work anymore. After doing everything they could, they brought the matter to me and now I'm bringing it to you. We've already sent out a ship to guard the opening, but it's possible something with magic… like Dr. Facilier, Ursula, or - God forbid - Maleficent might have already escaped."

"Maleficent?" A voice repeated from the doorway. Everyone turned. Audrey was standing in the doorway, looking startled. Ben's face softened to see her.

"Hey," he smiled and got to his feet. "How was your walk?"

"Fine," She stepped inside and took his hands. They shared a quick hello kiss. "What's going on?"

"The barrier to the Isle of the Lost is broken," Chad explained. "We found it two days ago."

"And Maleficent escaped?" Audrey asked, crossing her arms.

"No." Ben shook his head and retook his seat. "That's just speculation. So far, we have a ship out watching it and no one's escaped that we know of."

"The Isle has been quiet for the last few years," Chad speculated, rubbing the base of his chin. "If they've been planning something and they were quick… they could have got away."

"What do you mean by quiet?" Audrey demanded, then looked down at Ben. "Do we know where everyone is?"

"Oh, we keep track of most of the villains and note when they appear on cameras," Chad butted in before Ben could respond. "But two years ago, all the children stopped showing up on the cameras. Everyone twenty-two to four went underground. There are new kids now, of course, but we think the older ones went to the back of the Island, away from their parents."

Ben pinched his lips together to suppress a little smile and then continued examining the photo. The older children had escaped - underneath Chad's nose - and headed to the West, where they now had their own little place of safety away from their parents, ruled by a three-person team. It wasn't quite a secret that they were there - plenty of the contractors and constructors who had headed over knew the villain kids quite well and a few people traveled over without ever knowing whose territory they were going through, but Ben hadn't announced them at the request of Evie, who wanted to establish the community before it was added to Auradon as a Kingdom.

"What are we going to do?" Audrey asked, glancing down on the photo and then shifting her weight from side to side. "Is there anything we can do?"

"We ought to count the villains on the Isle right now," Ben decided, taking the photo and turning it upside down. He could tell that Audrey was panicking over the sight of it. "I'm worried about Ursula in particular… if the rip extends under the water then it's harder to tell if she's escaped already. However, I don't want to call attention to the breach. We don't need people taking advantage of it."

"Understood," Chad nodded and glanced at his wife. "Alexis proposed we erect some sort of secondary barrier or a monitoring spell at the least over the rip while we figure out how to fix the rip."

"Call the Fairy Godmother," Ben nodded. "She should be able to help with both the rip and a second barrier." He glanced up at Audrey. "Maybe your Fairy Godmothers could help with that as well?"

"Maybe," Audrey nodded. She was looking past Ben, out the window, and into the distance. He glanced out, but there was nothing there and he knew she was only spacing out again. She had been doing that ever since he ripped out the curtains in her room and closed the spa on all days except Monday.

"We will contact her," Chad decided, and the three of his family got to their feet. "Thank you, Ben. We'll be in touch."

They took their leave out of the office. Ben busied himself with scribbling a note down to reach out to them later and then glanced at Audrey. She was focused on the window still, gazing out at nothing. Ben sighed. "You're doing it again," he murmured softly, trying his best not to nag.

Audrey snapped back to the present and let out an irritated sigh. "Let it go, Ben," she grumbled, sitting down in a chair near the door. "I'm just… thinking. Nothing's wrong with me."

"You're having trouble focusing," Ben told her. "You keep going unresponsive. You used to never do that."

"Plenty of people think, Ben," Audrey replied. "And I did what you wanted. I went for a walk. I went _outside."_ She waved her hand to the window and made a fluttering motion with her fingertips. Ben frowned. It was clear from her tone of voice she still thought he was being ridiculous. "Listen, I know you have this belief that nature restores everything, but I've been having this thought lately-" She spread her hands as if framing something on the wall behind him. "What if I'm just getting older? What if that's what this is?"

"Geriatrics at twenty-nine," Ben snorted. Audrey let out an annoyed breath as he started going through random papers atop his stack. There weren't many though, and soon he was left with the option to find something else to occupy his attention or look at Audrey and engage in awkward silence. He stood up and wandered to the window, opening it. Audrey shivered before the first breeze had ever swept into the room and stood up.

"Where's our daughter?" She asked.

"It's Molly's nap time," he rolled his eyes. "I believe she's reading and putting her to bed."

Audrey stared at him as if he had two heads. A blank and confused look was frozen on her face as she stared at a point just over his left ear, processing. "Oh," she nodded and pressed a hand to her head. "I didn't know she was reading yet. Did her last nanny teach her?"

"We don't have nannies anymore," Ben reminded her patiently, though he felt like grinding his teeth together. "I taught her. Remember, we read in the evenings now?"

"Yes, of course!" Audrey snapped. "I'm not stupid, Ben." She paused, then raked the fingers of one hand through her hair. "I just… I thought Molly was still struggling, and-"

"Molly is the doll, Audrey," Ben interrupted. "Our daughter's name is Belle. Remember? Belle?" His voice was rising now - Audrey's face bloomed over red and puce.

"I got mixed up!" She snapped. "I forgot about the doll. I was talking about the… the… the peasant girl who keeps coming over to play with her. The one you said was a good influence."

"Morgan," Ben supplied, and yes, he could see how she confused the two names. "Morgan isn't a peasant girl, Audrey. Her mother is a developmental psychologist. She's the one we used to take Belle to. But she doesn't have a nanny. Never has."

"I can't believe you thought I would forget my own daughter's name!" Audrey snapped, ignoring what he'd just said. "What kind of monster do you think I am?"

"Well, you seem content to-" Ben shut himself off. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "I… I apologize. I didn't mean to-"

"Oh, no." Audrey shook her head. "Do go on. What do I seem content to forget? I'm the one who participates at her school."

"The school that I put her in."

"I put her in the first seven-"

"You didn't care when she got dropped out of every single-"

"You weren't ever there! You were always busy-"

"I was busy because you couldn't be bothered to-"

"It wasn't a problem for you then-"

"It was always a problem! I just-"

"You need to-"

"Mom?" The little voice came from the doorway and Audrey stopped mid-sentence to glance down and then turn to pick Belle up. Belle's head dropped onto Audrey's shoulder as mother and daughter shared a hug. Audrey closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She chuckled and ran a hand down Belle's back.

"You smell nice, little one."

"Thanks, mommy."

Audrey set Belle back down and Belle glanced over at her father, who got down on one knee to be on eye level with her as he held out a hand for a fist bump. "Did you put Molly to bed okay?" he asked.

Belle nodded. "I checked her pulses," she announced as if it were an ordinary thing. "She's a bit on the dead side but I'll give her medicine when she wakes up and she'll live."

Ben wasn't sure that was entirely how medicine worked.

"That sounds like a good idea, pumpkin," Audrey told Belle. "You take such good care of your dolly - maybe one day you can come up with something that fixes Mommy's aches too."

"Dad says if you eat lots of fruits and veggies and go outside to play then it helps," Belle suggested. Ben lifted his eyes to Audrey as if to say "I-told-you-so," and Audrey pinched her lips together.

"Mommy has different problems than that, honey."

Belle shrugged. "It worked for me. I don't get tummy aches anymore." She put a hand to her midsection and rubbed her belly. "Dad, I'm hungry. Can we get a snack?'

"Sure," Ben nodded and scooped her up into his arms. Her unicorn t-shirt slid up against his arm and Belle squirmed to pull it back down. Ben stopped to kiss Audrey's cheek before he stepped out of the office and murmured: "We'll be out on the porch." She didn't respond. A corner of the office had transfixed her, and she was gone. Ben huffed and turned out the lights. She never remembered to do it herself and he was tired of the expense it was causing. He left the door open and the window letting in a breeze. Audrey wouldn't notice either until she eventually came back to herself.

Belle curled into his shoulder. She hadn't noticed yet that Audrey wasn't always herself.

* * *

Nineteen months and he still couldn't get used to sleeping without the window open.

It was the closest he could get on a reasonable night to sleeping outside. Sometimes he actually would sleep outside, out on the porch or in a hammock or sometimes in a tent where Belle could play the next day. But most nights he was inside, fully clad in soft plaids and warm flannel and thick socks with the ceiling fans on high and the windows open - even in the winter. Even on fall nights like these.

Audrey thought he was insane.

It helped a bit - coping with the distance and with his job and the daily grind of things. Things had gotten better over the years. He hadn't seen Mal since he'd left (which might have been for the better) but he and Evie had exchanged letters off and on for about four months after he'd left before they'd both gotten too busy to keep up. He still heard about the VK's when they requested additional help from Auradon, but things were smooth-sailing now. They didn't need his help.

Ben rolled over in his bed. The other side was, of course, empty. Ben had told Audrey about two months after arriving that he was going to move back into the master bedroom and that redecoration would be coming with him. He'd arranged for her to keep all her things - her favorite rug and limited collection of bath bombs, among other treasures, but she'd been so furious she'd moved into a separate suite next to Belle's rather than room with him. Her room was decorated to her tastes, and Ben wasn't going to force her to change that. He knew this whole thing had been a shock for her. Still, her hate bit at him. When they had married, he had pictured falling asleep beside her. Waking up and kissing her hair until she awoke with a smile on her face. Children - plural. But Audrey wanted none of it. And he couldn't hold anything against her.

He rolled back onto his back - why was he so sleepless tonight? It had been a rather relaxing night. He and Belle had eaten together and read while Audrey dined separately in her room. Audrey had come down to help him put Belle to bed - which was an improvement, and one he was pleased to see. She even checked that Belle had brushed her teeth before they'd turned off the light. Still, she had gone back to her room without saying much to him.

Ben wished his brain would shut off.

He tossed back onto his front and shook his pillow twice before burying his face into it. For a moment, he imagined it was a rolled-up fur jacket instead and the cut of the wind felt sharper, but then the silk of the bedsheets brought him back to the palace.

Something fell in the next room over. Ben sat up, blinking. There was a shuffling sound - someone had tripped over whatever had been disturbed. Was it Belle, trying to sneak into his room? Ben swung his feet over the edge of the bed, found his slippers, and got to his feet. He walked to the door, opened it, and peered outside.

The culprit froze in the center of the room, over the blanket basket that had been kicked from where he and Belle had accidentally left it earlier. He stared at Ben. Ben stared back. In the distance, Ben thought he heard a familiar, firm voice telling him he should call the guards now.

Because the culprit had flaming blue hair.

Ben cleared his throat. "Can I help you?" he asked slowly, taking in the fact that this man - this god - was standing in his living room. This villain who should be on the Isle right now.

Hades blinked, looked over his shoulder, gestured to himself, and exhaled. "Your majesty," he coughed and cleared his throat. "I am… sorry to disturb you."

"Oh, no, I was awake," Ben nodded. He let his hands drop from where they had remained on the doorframes. "I thought you were…" Actually, it probably wasn't best to draw a villain's attention to his daughter. "Nevermind."

Hades leaned down and propped the blanket basket back up before hurriedly stuffing all that had fallen out of it back in. He cleared his throat but said nothing. Ben decided to ask again.

"Is there… a reason you're here? Something I can do to help you?" The hairs on his neck were starting to fall again. Hades didn't seem intent on hurting him, at least. And prior experience with the children of the villains had taught him that negotiations were easier if you offered to do something without charge. If Hades was anything like the kids, he'd be wary of debt and insist on repaying any favor.

Hades seemed surprised he was being regarded so kindly despite the situation. He straightened up and stared. Ben ran a hand through his hair so he wasn't standing awkwardly and then gestured to the couches around Hades. "Here," he invited. "Have a seat. Do you want me to send for something?"

"No," Hades declined, though he took a seat. Ben walked over and sat on an adjacent couch. He took a deep breath and then began to speak.

"So… you're here in my living room in the middle of the night… and there's nothing you need me to do for you?"

"I'm here for information," Hades replied stiffly. "I'm not here to… threaten you or…" he exhaled. "I, uh, was going to sneak in and sneak out without taking anything."

Ben clasped his hands together. "Well, what were you looking for?" he asked.

Hades shifted. "Well… a few years ago, I don't know if you know, there was a group of kids that left the Isle of the Lost. They came to Auradon… wanted to strike out by themselves."

"I know," Ben nodded. "They were led by three girls. They went to Charmington, and that's where they were found."

"Are you holding them, then?" Hades asked.

"No," Ben shook his head in response. "They live out west now. They have their own lands and everything. I set the land aside for their use."

"You did?" If Hades was surprised at first, it was nothing compared to now. "Well… that's wonderful. I, uh, didn't expect that." He ran a hand through his hair. "Well, see here, I had one of my kiddos leave with that group and I've always worried about her a bit… I wanted to drop by and see her and… maybe not get sent back to the Isle."

Ben paused and furrowed his brow. "Well," he began, "These kids were specifically fleeing from parents. If I send you over, how do I know-"

"I'm not an abuser," Hades replied flatly. "I don't have any proof, but I'm not. I didn't even get to raise my kiddo - her mother was a bit of a freak. But I watched over her until the day she was gone - and I don't want to be part of her life if she hates me - I just want to make sure she's taken care of and happy and everything."

Ben nodded slowly. His brain felt a bit foggy from the surprise, but he understood. "Okay," he agreed. "I can arrange for that."

Hades blinked in surprise. "You can?" he nodded.

"Sure." Ben shrugged. "I'm the King - I can do whatever I want. And if you want to see your daughter, then you can see your daughter." He stifled a yawn - of course, he'd feel tired now - and then squinted at Hades. "One question: how did you get out?"

"Well, I used the old machine the kids left behind and figured out the code to flip it on and from there, I just used my powers to open the barrier."

"How long ago?" Ben asked.

"Two days, now," Hades shrugged. "I went to the underworld to see if I could see where she'd gone from my realm, but I couldn't. And then-"

"Sorry," Ben interrupted. "Two more questions, please. One, how did you get out without being seen, and two, did you happen to open the barrier near the old Port de la Grande?"

Hades stared. "Yes…" he trailed off. "I used my helmet of invisibility."

Ben pressed his lips together. "Did you close the barrier after you left?" he asked. "Because we have a gaping hole underneath that port that we can't close remotely."

A color spread into Hades's cheeks. "I… meant to close it," he stammered. "I musta… not understood the machinery or something - you can't close it?"

"It must have been broken when you came through." Ben ran a hand through his hair. "There's a large hole… at least twenty feet across."

"Twenty feet?" Hades echoed. "I didn't do that. "I slipped through in about three feet." He chuckled nervously. However, this did nothing to console Ben.

"Well, then it must be getting wider," he reasoned and got to his feet to pace across the room. "I'll have to call Chad… let him know. I don't suppose there's a way you can fix it? Yes, I thought not. Well, I'll still help you get to the West if you want. I believe there's some sort of spell that keeps some people out… we can send you with a carriage with our ensign and you'll be able to get in with that."

"That would be wonderful," Hades agreed, relaxing a little though he still looked a little embarrassed. "Thank you for your hospitality. I'm sorry for the barrier."

Ben waved him off. "We'll get it worked out," he assured him, then paused to yawn. "So long as Maleficent doesn't figure out it's there, we'll be fine." He braced his hands on the back of the couch. "Now, if you'll excuse me, it's getting late. If you want, there is an empty suite across the hall that should be maintained. You're welcome to have it for the night and in the morning I'll have horses and a carriage prepped to take you to the West."

Hades stood up, still looking a little lost. "Wait," he requested, holding up his hands. "Is… is that it?"

Ben tilted his head. "Unless you need anything else?"

"Well…" Hades trailed off. "Do you offer to send everyone who breaks into your suite across the country?"

"To be fair, you're the first time this has happened, and I'm not sure it'll become a trend." Although he had offered the group of people who had kidnapped him on a diplomatic trip a kingdom of their own and ditched his family for two months to support them, so he didn't exactly have a great track record for dealing with wrongdoers. Oh well.

Hades stared at him as if he was unsure he was speaking with the right person. Ben ran his hands up and down his face and yawned. "Let's talk more in the morning," he decided and then turned to walk back into his room. He listened briefly to see if Hades would say anything, but no further comment was added.

He shut the door to his room again and, after a few moments, heard Hades leave.


	2. Chapter 2

Ben woke up with his eight-year-old kneeling on his legs and leaning down over his face. "Dad, who's that man in our living room?" Belle asked as soon as she could see that his eyes were open.

Ben lifted a hand and rubbed his eyes. "Does he have blue hair?" he wondered.

"Yes," Belle nodded. "It's on fire."

Ben sat up and yawned. "That is someone who's come for my help, Belle. I need you to be on your best behavior."

"Does his hair burn him?" Belle wondered.

"Probably not," Ben reasoned.

"Would it burn me?"

"Let's not find out." Ben decided. He picked her up underneath her arms and then set her back down once he had moved his legs. He got up and then nodded at the covers. "Want to help me make my bed?" he asked.

"No," Belle turned her nose into the air and slid off the bed. "One is too many. Why don't we have the maid come to make our beds like Mom does?"

"Because you need to have some chores to keep your body strong," Ben told her. "If Mom did her own chores, she wouldn't be so sick all the time."

Belle huffed. "Well, okay, I'll make my bed, but I won't make yours." She blew her brown hair out of her eyes. "I'm going to go wake up Mom," she decided and headed for the door. "She needs to do my hair."

"Goodbye!" Ben called. He pulled the comforter straight and sighed. it occurred to him that he'd have to get to Audrey and inform her of their… odd guest before she found him and had a panic attack. With that thought in mind, he quickly yanked the pillows into place and then headed for the living room.

Hades was sitting in the living room, looking stiff but alert. Ben offered him a smile and a little wave. "Good morning," he bid him. "Did you sleep well?"

"I did," Hades nodded. "I, uh, didn't know you had a daughter?"

"Yes, I do," Ben nodded. "That's who I thought you were when I walked in last night. Belle."

Hades wrinkled his nose. "You could have named her better," he remarked.

"Family gatherings are a little confusing," Ben admitted with a shrug. "I guess my family just isn't good at naming people. My mom picked Florian for my middle name."

The corner of Hades's mouth crooked up. "My wife - well, ex-wife - picked our daughter's name and I have never forgiven myself on her behalf."

Ben snorted. "Yes, I knew one of the villain kids who had an awful middle name too," he said. Hades gave him an odd ook and it occurred to Ben that he probably didn't know the full story - that Ben had been swiped and then accidentally become the villain's savior. Something to be explained later. He gestured to the door out into the hall. "Well, I am going to go inform the queen you're here before there's a mix-up or anything. Breakfast is usually served in a room down the hall. You can go help yourself. It'll be the one with the open door and all the windows though if you follow your nose you should be able to find it." He began retreating while still talking. "If you can't find it, I or Belle will be out in a moment to show you. Audrey usually takes a while to get ready."

Hades nodded but didn't move. Ben slipped out into the hall and then began to walk down to where Belle's room was. Belle's room still held a mix of bright oranges and pinks in the rug and the lamp and her clothes, among other possessions, but it was now painted a muted beige and held grey and white accents instead of the sensory overload it had been two years ago. Belle loved it, so that was what was important, but Ben could do without all the stickers and pictures she'd hung on her walls.

In Audrey's room, the decor resembled what most of the palace had been before Ben had changed it. Vivid pink and yellow and orange. Ben skirted around Audrey's prized rug and ducked under a bunch of jewels she had hanging from the ceiling - was that really necessary? Her room was overstuffed with furniture she had saved when Ben flipped the palace decorations around and Ben had to lean to avoid the giant pillows stacked precariously atop each other.

Inside the bathroom, Belle was babbling as Audrey carefully combed her hair up into a high ponytail. Both girls were smiling and there was even some color in Audrey's cheeks as she carefully arranged the braid she was tying up into the pony. Ben leaned against the doorframe and watched them chatter. Belle's eyes lit up when she saw him. "Hi dad!" she smiled.

"Hello Belle," he waved and then locked eyes with Audrey as his wife opened a drawer stuffed with hair accessories. "Your hair looks nice."

"Only one," Audrey whispered to Belle. Belle ignored the compliment as she began searching through scrunchies and clips. She folded her arms across herself and closed her eyes in discomfort or pain. Ben stepped further into the bathroom and slipped his arm around her. His hand landed in the small of her back to support her as she took a deep, steadying breath. "My body is betraying me," she laughed, leaning back into his touch. Ben made sure not to let his expression change at all.

"I think my favorite color is pink today," Belle mused as she shuffled past a diamond-encrusted claw clip. "Actually, no, it's purple. Do you have anything with polka dots?"

Audrey leaned forward to withdraw a vibrant purple scrunchie with pink polka dots. Belle nodded happily and Audrey began wrapping the velvet scrunchie into her daughter's hair. Ben watched the purple in her hands and felt himself falling into a little trance. Then, he remembered what he'd come to say.

"We have a visitor," he announced. "I just want you to know so you don't… get confused or anything."

"From the kingdoms?" Audrey asked.

"Mom, he's got blue hair!" Belle exclaimed happily.

"Oh, I see," Audrey smiled and put her hands on Belle's shoulders. "He and dad must be exchanging fashion advice!" She poked Belle's sides and the little girl squealed and shrieked. Audrey laughed with her.

"Belle?" Ben asked when Audrey had let up tickling their daughter. "Why don't you run and show him where the food is? I don't want him to get lost." Belle nodded, leaned up to kiss Audrey's cheek, and then scurried out of the room. Audrey's smile faded as Belle left. She picked up her hairbrush in the absence of any conversation and then began combing through her hair. Ben cleared his throat. "I know what this is going to look like to you, and so I just need you to know about him before you go out there," he told her. "He, uh, has come for help and I'm going to help him."

"Of course you are," Audrey nodded. "You always help everyone."

"This is a little different," Ben sighed. "He's… looking for his daughter. I'll be seeing him off later today. He, uh, has an interesting backstory."

Audrey paused in brushing her hair. "Interesting?" she asked.

Ben took her hand and pulled her a little closer so he didn't have to talk as loud. He doubted the sound could reach out of the room with all the overcrowding out there, but it just felt like something that should be whispered instead of said. "Audrey, it's Hades. He's just come from the Isle of the Lost and he's looking for the kids that left the Isle a few years ago."

Audrey's eyes grew wide. "But he - the barrier!" She squawked.

"He broke it to come looking for her. But it's okay! Everything's under control! We know where they are and we're going to send him off after breakfast."

"You know where those kids went?" Audrey demanded. "The ones Chad was talking about?"

"You were listening?" Ben blinked in surprise.

"Ben!"

"I'm sorry! I just-" he took a deep breath. "Yes, I know where those kids went. They also came for me to help. Or, well, they brought me to - it doesn't matter! Yes, I know where they are."

"You didn't tell me?" Audrey shrieked.

"It was back before you were working in office!" Ben snapped. He brought his hands up to his face to momentarily block her out and then took a deep breath. "Listen, we're going to get the barrier fixed… Hades is going to go this afternoon and then I promise everything will be okay. I just need to not call the guards on him or insult him for one morning."

"Hades," Audrey deadpanned. "The God of the Underworld who tried to destroy the world."

"Don't call the guards." Ben leveled a finger to her nose. "And don't insult him."

Audrey rolled her eyes.

Breakfast was almost boring. Ben had to rush Belle out halfway through so she could get her school clothes on. She came back and gave a twirl and Ben caught Hades staring at her wistfully. Audrey snuck into the dining room after she was dressed, ignored Hades and Ben, kissed Belle's head, and then disappeared towards the spa. It was Monday, the only day Ben will let the spa attendant come in anymore, and so he knew he wouldn't see her until tomorrow morning.

A message came that the carriage Ben had requested was now prepared and out in front.

"I'll have to walk Belle down to the bus stop soon," he told Hades. "But let's go down to my office and I'll write you a letter to show people in charge of the Villain Kid's territory so you can prove I sent you over. That way, if you get stopped on the road, you won't be arrested and brought back either."

Ben's office was left exactly the way he'd shut it down yesterday. His seat was cold from the breeze coming through the window. The papers on his were a bit moist. Ben sat down and began searching for a piece of cold stationery. Hades began to examine a map of Auradon hanging on the wall behind him.

"They're out past Arendelle," Ben supplied, testing a pen out on a sticky note.

"You have it marked," Hades agreed. "VK Hideaway."

"It had a nice ring."

Hades examined the map several more seconds and then turned to look over Ben's shoulder. It appeared both of them were at a loss of what to say as Ben addressed the letter "To Whom It May Concern."

"I, uh, have you figured out how to fix the barrier?" Hades asked.

"No," Ben shook his head. "But we'll have to soon. I don't want anyone bad getting out. You're fine, but there are a few people I wouldn't necessarily want to have show up on my doorstep."

"I get it," Hades agreed. "But there are some people like me over there. Lots of parents pushed their kids to go, even knowing they'd never see them again."

Ben paused. He tried to imagine never, ever being able to see Little Belle again. Then, with a swallow, he found his voice again. "That's rough," he said. "I'll have to do something about that. Thank you for bringing it to my attention."

Hades looked confused. "You know," he sighed. "It's a lot harder to hate you when you realize that you're not a bad guy. I know a great lot of people out on that island who'd kill you right now without a second thought." He turned back to the map and started tracing the VK spot with his fingertip.

"Glad to see I'm liked," Ben sighed, running a hand through his hair. He was about halfway through his letter. "There are some people out on that island I'm terrified to meet, though. I mean, imagine if Maleficent had escaped. If she's anything like her daughter in terms of power, Auradon would have been history."

Hades stopped and looked at Ben curiously. "The daughter of Maleficent?" he asked slowly.

"Her name is Mal." Ben looked up and tilted his head to the side as he talked. "Very powerful young lady. She once told me she could use some magic through the barrier. She's the protector of the encampment now."

"Ah," Hades nodded and a little smile spread across his mouth. "Good to hear."

Ben turned back to his letter. "She's not against Auradon, luckily for us. But goodness, if Maleficent came for us, that'd be-"

"What's that?" Hades cut Ben off, staring out the open window. Ben turned and followed his gaze. Out over the treeline, a thick green fog was approaching. Ben got to his feet.

"I have no idea," he admitted. Dread pooled in his stomach.

"Maleficent," Hades's hands dropped to his side. "You spoke of the devil, and she appeared."

"Oh my…" A sound like white noise filled Ben's ears. "Audrey!" He dropped his pen and ran for the door. Hades kept close behind him.

"Where would Belle have gone?" He demanded in a yell.

"Probably her room to wait for me!" Ben responded. Hades nodded and hurried away. Ben dashed towards the spa as the castle shook. Green smoke clouded at the windows and began to seep in through the open ones. It smelled tart and burnt at the same time. Ben held his breath, fearing it might be something that would knock him out, but nothing happened.

He burst into the spa room and discovered Audrey sitting up in a chair, looking confused as she squinted suspiciously at the smoke outside the exposed window. A bathrobe was drawn over her and she was dressed in slacks and a pink shirt. Her feet were bare. When she saw the smoke seeping into the room behind him, she gasped. "What is that?" she demanded.

"Maleficent!" Ben gasped, rushing forward and grabbing her hand. "We need to get out. You need to get out."

The spa attendant rushed out, covering her face with a wet towel. Ben pulled Audrey by the hand to the hall. Audrey didn't resist, but she wasn't moving very fast. "But - Belle!" she sputtered.

"She's going to be outside, don't worry!" Ben shouted. They began to run down the hall together, but before they'd even transversed ten feet Audrey had to grab the wall for support. Her face was deathly pale as she clutched at her ribs.

"I can't run!" she gasped.

"You and your-" Ben almost threw his hands into the air. Around the corner, in the entrance hall, there was a loud bang. Maniacal laughter filled the area. Audrey's face went even paler.

"I'm back!" Maleficent cackled from the entryway. "Where are you?"

A hand appeared on Ben's shoulder. He turned and discovered Hades quietly ushering him back towards the family rooms. Without a second thought, Ben scooped Audrey up into his arms, ignoring her little cry as he forced her body to curl up a bit, and they headed into the living room that was attached to the master. Just in time as Maleficent entered the hall and began to search through rooms.

Hades guided them into Ben's bedroom, where the window was open. Belle sat beside the open window with the screen on the ground, clutching Molly the Doll with her backpack set on both shoulders securely. Ben leaned out the window and discovered Audrey's hideous mountain of pillows had somehow appeared under the window. He assumed Hades's godly magic had had something to do with that.

"Let's get out," Hades decided, picking up Belle.

"What about Maleficent?" Ben asked. "Could you take her?"

Hades let out a laugh. "Until that woman dies, I've got nothing," he said. He climbed up on the railing and cuddled Belle close to him before leaning out. Audrey shrieked and leaned towards the window. Ben winced, but no one appeared. Down below, Hades and a now-crying Belle rolled safely off the mountain. Ben took Audrey's hand and made to help her up.

"I'm not going down there!" Audrey declared, leaning away from the window. Her hands were pressed to her back, trying to give herself additional support.

"It's either get down and get to the carriage in front or meet your mother's enemy, who'd probably love to see you anyways," Ben snapped. Audrey pinched her lips together and allowed herself to be helped up. tears started to roll down her cheeks as she was forced to use her back and ribs for balance. It only took a second, then she, too, fell.

Ben put one foot on the windowsill and started to lean up. He heard a door slam somewhere in the palace. "Oh, Princey!" Maleficent called, louder than she should be allowed to be from such a distance. "Where are you? I need your help! You have something I need!"

Something she needed? What? She was out of the barrier… the scepter she had been allowed to keep on the Isle, he knew that. Her spellbook was with Mal - oh. Mal.

The villain kids. What if she went after them?

He had their location in his office.

Ben put his feet back on the ground. Hades finished helping Audrey up and looked up for him. Ben gestured for them to go and then dashed back into the palace. He ducked behind the couch, barely hiding his feet behind the blanket basket when Maleficent appeared in the doorway.

She was both a lot larger and a lot smaller than Ben would have thought. He'd never seen the mistress of all evil but had imagined her to be taller than Mal. On the contrary, she was even shorter than her daughter. Her horns were adorned with rusty chains. Her cloaks billowed out around her as she walked. And she held a set of features eerily similar to the ones that had haunted his dreams. That same thin nose. That same slip of pink mouth. The sparkling, power-filled eyes.

Maleficent went into the bedroom and as soon as her back was turned, Ben made a run for it. She didn't seem to notice him leaving as he disappeared into the thick fog. He hit the hallways and dashed down to his office before grabbing the map Hades had been admiring off the wall and tearing it down. The mount it had been hanging on fell with a clatter. Ben ripped open desk drawers, knowing he didn't have much time, and grabbed a heavy booklet marked "VK's". Then, before he left, he grabbed the mostly-finished letter he'd written for Hades. And it was these things he made off with from his office.

He escaped through the front entry as Hades was finishing shoving Audrey into the carriage and putting Belle into her arms. A terrified coachman sat with shaking hands as Ben sprinted down the steps and practically threw everything into the carriage. Hades jumped in and Ben grabbed the handle beside the door as the carriage began to move. Hades yanked him the rest of the way in.

"Oh, gods," Audrey began to cry as he sat down beside her. She leaned her head into his arms and began to weep. Belle, too, was sobbing and squeezing her doll.

"Tell the carriage driver that we're still going to the same place," Ben told Hades, pulling Audrey and Belle up and into his lap together. Audrey didn't weigh much, so it wasn't an issue.

"Where are we going?" Audrey hiccuped, wiping her eyes while burying her face into Ben's chest.

"The VK Hideaway," Ben responded softly. "I know a person… she might be the only person who can stop Maleficent."

* * *

Audrey was too devastated and shocked and in pain to talk to Ben on the way there. It was only long after they passed Charmington that she was able to curl out of his side. The road wasn't as treacherous as before since Ben had ended up repaving the roads all the way out to VK Territory. Now, you could move faster.

Belle slowly came back to herself, occupying her time with caring for Molly and talking with Hades while her mom sat in numb silence and her dad tried to comfort her. She didn't understand why they had left so suddenly, what had happened at the castle, or why they couldn't go back at the moment.

Audrey broke her silence on the second day of traveling. "Ben, did you ever go for a meeting to the VK's?"

Hades glanced over. It was clear he, too, was interested in the response.

"Sort of," Ben replied with a shrug. "I met them when they first came to Auradon. I stayed with them for two months while they relocated to the west. They'd previously taken up refuge in Chad's kingdom."

"How many?" Audrey asked.

"About two hundred when I met them," Ben responded. "But… some of the kids were older. They might have some new children now." He turned around to glance at Belle, curled up on the floor with Molly. "Maybe Belle will be able to make some new friends."

Audrey ran her hands through her hair, which looked stringy and greasy. It was probably the first time in her life she hadn't changed her clothes in twelve hours. "What are we going to do about Maleficent?"

Ben drummed his fingers on his legs. He closed his eyes and Mal's image appeared behind his eyelids, unbidden. "I'll have to ask the VK's for help. There's one person in particular who I know could take out Maleficent. I just have to ask her."

"Her daughter?" Hades asked softly.

"She has a daughter?" Audrey yelped, spinning to face Ben.

Ben nodded. "She's nice, though. It'll be okay."

"She's going to hate me," Audrey whimpered. "She won't agree."

Ben chewed on his cheek. He technically considered himself and Mal to have parted on equal terms but knew she wouldn't consider it the same. Maybe, with a bit of imploring and the sake of her own life and people on end, he could convince her to help him win back Auradon? She might not be able to take out the faery on her own, but with the added forces of Auradon and-

"Dad, I want to go home," Belle moaned from the floor. "We've been in here forever!"

Ben leaned down and picked her up. She kicked his leg lightly to further express her disgust and then fell, sullen, against his chest. "We're almost there," he whispered. "We can't go home yet, but we'll get some help and then we will."

* * *

There was a barrier that had been erected at the borders of Arendelle. It was mostly transparent unless you were at the base of it, which Ben and everyone were. Then, it became bright green and looked like it had been made of glass. Audrey began to huff in fear when she saw the color. She had been sleeping restlessly since leaving the castle and Ben knew seeing something so similar to the fog wasn't going to help her nerves at all. Belle, too, looked scared.

Hades cleared his throat as the carriage wheeled closer to the barrier. "Listen, kid, I know what I told you about my daughter, and that was all true. However, with this new development with Maleficent… I don't know if she'll want to see me or let anyone know I'm her dad. So just… lie low for me, please? I'm going to try and find her… rebuild with her if she wants to try."

A normal person would have been suspicious, but Ben nodded. "Okay," he agreed.

The coachman stopped the carriage. Deep bags were under his eyes and his hands still shook from the fear of having Maleficent pass him by. He'd taken them straight to the Westlands, not even pausing except for to feed the horses and close his eyes, and seemed rather eager to get inside this new barrier and to safety.

Ben got out and helped Belle down. Hades followed and then a very sick-looking Audrey stepped down with his help. Then, everyone gathered around to see what to do. Belle clung to his leg. No one seemed content to touch the barrier and even Ben didn't know if it was spelled to shock them back or anything. He got on top of the coachman's seat and peered through the thick green to see what was behind it. In the not-so-far distance, he could see a building. This building was made of grey cement and white stone and rose high up above the trees with a metal pole added to the top for extra height. A lookout tower. And though it was still a fair distance away, he could see no one on it.

"There's no one on the tower," Ben informed the group. "We'll have to chance touching the barrier or just wait for someone to-"

There was a sound like an asteroid falling and something slammed into the ground just inside the barrier. Dust was thrown up and pebbles ricocheted through the magic sphere, raining down on their group. Audrey shrieked and Belle yelled and began to cry. Through the settling dust, Ben saw two glowing green eyes.

He got off the coachman's seat.

The coachman was trembling, crouched behind one of the wheels. Audrey took Ben's arm and hid behind it. Without really meaning to, he brushed her off and stepped closer to the barrier.

The dust faded and he saw purple.

Mal's eyes were squinted into a glare as she dusted herself off and stepped up to the barrier, so close he could smell her. Leather and magic and - oh, he was drooling again. Even after all this time.

She was unfairly beautiful. Time had blessed her - she had curves that she hadn't had before and her skin was softer and more supple than before. Her hair was longer, falling down her back now in tiny natural curls and a darker purple than he remembered. He could see her personality had changed too. She no longer barked at them to explain why they were here or glowered at them with her presence. Instead, she glanced at the carriage, then focused on him.

His prepared words about what he was doing were suddenly lost. "Hey Mal," he murmured instead. His knees felt weak.

"Ben," Mal said in reply. "I saw you coming."

"I saw your perch," Ben replied. "You've upgraded."

Mal shifted her weight and sighed. "What is this, Ben? Are you coming for a visit? We don't need your help anymore."

Ben had to swallow - his mouth felt very dry. "I was… that's not why we came."

"Excuse me?" Audrey peeped up from behind Ben. Ben almost jumped out of his skin - he'd forgotten she was there. She came back up and slipped an arm through his before laying her head on his shoulder. "I'm very sorry… we don't mean to intrude but there's been an emergency. We could really use the Villain Kid's help."

Mal stared at Audrey like she couldn't comprehend her existence. Ben felt Audrey put her hand in his for support. She squeezed and he squeezed back. This didn't seem like one of her jealous ploys - she was just lost and confused.

Mal leaned to see behind Ben. She choked. "Hades?" she demanded, going pale.

Ben didn't see Hades's response. He was too busy focusing on Audrey's hand in his.

Belle stayed beside the wagon with the coachman, who'd started peeping out from behind the wheel, and continued crying. Ben slowly let go of Audrey's hand to go and pick up his sobbing eight-year-old. Mal recoiled upon seeing the child but was still sputtering over Hades's presence. "What is he - she's your-" she sputtered, trying to make sense of the questions she wanted to ask.

"Hades accidentally broke the barrier to the Isle of the Lost while trying to escape to see his daughter again," Ben explained. "Your mother escaped behind him. We need your help, Mal."

"My mother?" Mal demanded. Her eyes grew even wider. Audrey went stiff upon having the girl's identity revealed. She leaned back in fear.

"She attacked the palace," Ben explained softly, letting Belle ball her fists up in his shirt as she cried. "We escaped and we spent two days coming here. Please, Mal, we need help."

Audrey reached out and her hand passed through the barrier. She took Mal's hand. Mal looked almost afraid of the other woman. "Please, miss," Audrey begged Mal. "Talk with us. Let us explain everything. But please, don't shut us out here. Maleficent took the palace… my mother and his were probably next. We just need a little help before we'll be on our way again, and we won't bother you anymore."

If Ben were Mal, the last thing he'd want to do would be to see Audrey. To hear her. To know what she looked like. The fact he was holding Belle probably wasn't helping things. Mal looked like she was about to have an aneurysm. He chewed on his lip as he glanced back and forth between the two girls. Mal caught his eyes in one glance and it was as if he was frozen in time, watching his whole world fall apart.

Then Mal pulled her hand away from Audrey's and flicked her fingers. The barrier opened. Audrey lifted her hands to her cheeks as tears began to fall. "Thank you!" she cried, wiping pearlescent tears off of immediately-inflamed cheeks. Ben squeezed Belle closer as Mal stepped aside to clear a path for Audrey to walk in. She did, but stopped just inside the barrier and held her hand out for Ben. Without a lot of choices, Ben stepped close enough to take her hand as Hades entered the barrier. Mal let her eyes flit over the God of the Underworld. He examined her as well, looking a little deflated, before continuing up a path that Ben hadn't realized had appeared behind Mal. The coachman finally appeared from behind the wheel and with a "wait for me!", dashed up the path behind Hades to safety.

Ben stepped inside last. Belle squeezed his shirt even harder as they passed through the barrier and he kissed her head to reassure her. Mal watched every movement and then fell behind him and Audrey as they walked. He wanted to turn around - to say something. No words came to mind, but he listened to her every deep breath all the way up the path.

They walked in through Uma's sector. Ben could tell which one it was by the teal signs marking roads. The place seemed just as busy as when he'd first left, only nicer. They reached the city center, which was marked by a large pavilion, and Ben was able to examine the differences between the three parts. Uma's sector was paved with dirt and textured brown stones and was wider for carts to fit through. Her signs were teal and the buildings made of wood, metal, and even some glass. Evie's streets were paved with brick and were thinner - probably because the brick cost more. Flowers were planted on the wayside and her signs were blue. Brick houses and white stuccos buildings made up her houses. And in Mal's section, there were hard and durable black roads and purple directional signs. Her buildings were all decorated in shades of grey, light blue, and light green stucco with rock accents. The tallest, thinnest building that stood in the center was probably hers. It was the one he'd seen from the road.

"This is incredible," He murmured. "You turned things around."

Mal didn't meet his eyes. "About time you saw it," she mumbled. "It's all thanks to you."

"Mal!" Someone called from the left. Ben looked over and his face lit up to see Uma walking towards them. She'd chopped her hair short and it was curled with white and yellow highlights in it. She wore pants with fishlike scales up the sides and a light cotton shirt. She was marching over with purpose, but when she recognized Ben, she stopped in her tracks.

"Uma!" Ben exclaimed, letting go of Audrey's hand and going to hug her. Uma was stiff, staring past Ben towards Mal in shock. Still, she patted his back and returned the hug.

"Ben!" she squeaked, sounding more shocked than anything. "You're back! What happened?"

Ben saw Audrey fold her arms across her chest out of the corner of his eye. Oh, dear. Luckily, Mal stepped forward. "Trouble in Auradon," she informed Uma. "The King came to inform me that my mother paid him a visit."

"Maleficent?" Uma asked.

"The king?" Ben raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.

Mal ignored Ben and focused on Uma. Given what she could be feeling at the moment, he couldn't blame her. "They've come to stay safe and get help. We're going to figure out what to do."

"Does he know…" Uma stuck a finger at Ben's cheek.

"Do I know-" Ben began to repeat the question, but Mal cut him off.

"We'll have to set up defenses. If you're not busy, you should go tell Carlos." Her eyes turned a little green and she shook her head a little at Uma. A secret then. Hopefully not anything bad. Uma started to back away. Ben grabbed her arm.

"Hang on," he requested. "You're one of the leaders. Let's get Evie and we four - five, actually, with Audrey - can discuss everything."

Uma chuckled uneasily. "Sorry, your majesty, but uh… I chose not to be part of leadership proceedings anymore. It took up too much time and I, well…" she held up her left hand. A ring sparkled on her fourth finger. "I decided I had different goals."

"You and Harry?" Ben asked with a smile. Uma nodded. "Congratulations! You didn't invite me to the wedding?"

"They didn't invite anyone," Mal explained, focusing on a point over Ben's shoulder, in Evie's sector. "They just moved in together and told everyone that they were married."

"Ah, I see," Ben nodded and then turned to gesture Audrey forward. "Uma, I believe you know about Audrey?"

Uma blinked slowly at Audrey, looked at Mal, looked down at Ben's hand where a new wedding band sat, silver and devoid of decoration, and then let out a long slow breath. Then, she stuck out a hand to Audrey. "Nice to meet you, your majesty," she bid with a tight, uncomfortable smile. "I'm Uma, daughter of Ursula."

Audrey looked paler than normal as she shook Uma's hand. Ben used the distraction to look over his shoulder and see what Mal was staring at. She'd started doing things with her eyes - glaring and flicking them as if she were trying to signal someone. Behind him, at the start of the red brick roads, was Jay. Jay's mouth was open as his eyes flit between Audrey, Ben, and Belle. When he realized Ben had seen him, he leaped away and took off in a sprint down the roads of Evie's sector.

"I, uh, got some places to be now," Uma said, backing away. "Gonna go find Carlos… be right back." And she spun around and took off in a speed-walk.

Something was up.

"Ben, what are we gonna do?" Audrey asked, pressing a hand to her head. "I'm sorry, but I can't… I can't walk anymore."

"Go sit at the pavilion," Mal nodded to the covered benches. "Take Ben and Belle with you. I need to… I need to run and check on something quickly. I'll bring water back… just take a seat.

Ben helped Audrey to the benches and set Belle down beside her. He watched Mal vanish down the black-paved streets and into the crowds of people. Then he took a seat beside his wife and daughter.

Audrey was pressing her hands to her ribs and taking deep breaths. "I… don't think I can do this, Ben," she whispered. "I left all my pain stuff at the palace when we left."

"Maybe Evie will have something," Ben whispered back. "She used to brew potions with her mom. She's another one of the leaders unless she bowed out too. He looked across the courtyard - their coachman had vanished, but Ben wasn't worried for him. He'd probably found a nice place to fall asleep or found someone to ask for help. Hades had vanished too… he was probably looking for his daughter.

"Ben," Audrey whispered, grinding her teeth at his side. "What are we gonna do?"

"We're gonna get help," Ben whispered. "Mal and Evie are going to help us. And when this is all over, we'll go back to the palace and everything will be the same."

Audrey keeled forward even more. "I can't… I hurt, Ben. I'm not the same as I used to be."

"You just need to use your muscles a little more and then-"

"Look at me, Ben!" Audrey exploded. "I can't run - I can barely walk! I've been sitting for two days and now it hurts to stand! I haven't been the same since Belle was born and no amount of exercise or fresh air will change that!" At her name, Belle looked up, unsure and afraid.

Ben pulled her away from Audrey and kissed her head. "Mom and dad need to talk for a moment," he whispered, then pointed to a group of small kids playing in the grass near Evie's area. "Go say hi to them. Ask them to play. Be dad's big, brave girl."

Belle nodded, wiped the last of her tears away, then turned and trudged away. Audrey looked tense - she didn't want her daughter to play with the villain kids but also knew things were about to get ugly. Ben put his hands together as she walked away. "I can't go back to the palace now," he told her. "But I'll try and keep you away as much as I can. But maybe this will be good. You've been wasting away for almost ten years… this will help you start building up strength."

"I don't need strength, Ben!" Audrey snapped. "My body is broken… you just want to believe you can fix everything with sunshine and fresh air and kindness, Ben. Well, you know what, you can't fix this by pushing on it more."

"I don't think there's anything wrong with you," Ben replied. "The doctors all say you need more exercise. You haven't done anything since she was born and you've been letting yourself waste away in that stupid spa…"

"The spa helped!" Audrey hissed. "At least I wasn't in pain all the time! You came home and began ripping everything out, stressing me out even more, and you wanted me to do all those new things-"

"Oh, you have to see Belle for at least five minutes every day, boo-hoo," Ben snapped back. He couldn't even find it in himself to be gentle or understanding. "She was a disaster and you know it. Our family was a disaster. We were dysfunctional."

Audrey balled her fists up. "It wasn't just…" she sputtered. "You made me move out of our room and you shut down my spa and then you kept butting into my time… don't put this all on me - it's your fault too!"

"Audrey, you had me set up appointments to see you!" Ben snapped. His voice was rising to a roar and people had glanced over. "I didn't get married in hopes my wife would want to see me every other year. You hadn't seen me in three months when I came back! Three months! I don't even know if you'd looked at Belle while I was gone - you kept shoving her off to the nanny! And sure, I was gone doing king stuff, but part of that is still your fault because you spent all your time in that stupid room pampering yourself instead of helping me rule. Shame on me for letting you."

"Of course I looked at Belle!" Audrey scowled. Tears were starting to pool in her eyes. "Of course I did! I'm her mother - don't you think I love her?"

"Hopefully not the way you love me," Ben scowled.

"Ben?" someone asked. Ben's head snapped to the right. His eyes were burning and the person who'd addressed him flinched back. It was Carlos. He stared at Ben, looked at Audrey, and then let out a long breath. "Oh… wow." It wasn't admiration. It was fear.

"Carlos," Ben took a deep breath and forced a smile. "We need your help. Mal said to ask you to set up defenses."

"You've seen Mal?" Carlos asked. His eyes flit back to Audrey.

"She let us in," Ben explained.

Carlos let out another breath.

"Is something wrong?" Ben asked.

Carlos began to back away again. "I-I'm sorry Ben. I'm just going to go and, uh, put some plans together for - for - yeah." He turned and sprinted away faster than Ben had seen him move before.

"Furthermore," Audrey huffed beside him, crossing her arms. "You haven't been absolutely amazing yourself. You load chores on Belle and work on me, force her to help you in your office, and-"

"Something's wrong," Ben cut her off. He was glancing around at the villain kids. Many of them he recognized. Many were staring at him, staring at Audrey, and looking sick. Many were whispering. Many were worried.

Could it be about how they were worried that he'd come back? Or who Audrey was?

"Ben-" Audrey started to call for him.

"I have to go find Mal - I'll be right back," Ben decided, turning and leaning down to kiss her cheek. "I swear I shouldn't be longer than five minutes… I need to ask her what's going on with everyone. Just stay here - Carlos will be back soon and Belle needs a supervisor."

"Mal?" Audrey blinked. "Will you be alone with her? Just stay here - she'll be back soon."

"And for the record," Ben held up his fingers as if plotting points on a line. "I never kicked you out of our room. I would have rather you stayed. I only said I was going to be back in the master room. You were the one who decided I wouldn't be able to keep my hands to myself and left, even though we're married. And Belle needed a parent in her life because she was turning into a tyrant - goodness knows you weren't going to step up. I put chores on Belle because they're good for her and the 'work' you have is filling out paperwork for the law. As queen, you're responsible for helping with it. I balanced it all for eight years, so you have no excuse." He ran a hand through his hair. "We'll talk more about this later - I need to find Mal."

"Ben!" Audrey struggled to her feet. Ben put a hand on the pavilion support pole and waited as she fumbled for the right words. "What about… what are we going to do? Where are we going to stay?"

"I'll ask Mal," Ben promised her. "If Evie happens to show up while I'm gone, ask her. She can help too." And he turned and left.

People stared and turned away wherever he went. Even little kids stopped to point at him with downcast and worried expressions. Whereas before, he would have been bombarded, now he was only uneasily regarded. He watched one mother press a panicked hand to her forehead as he passed.

He went into Mal's section, up to the long and thin building where he suspected she'd be. Her sector was kinda nice… it had grass and benches and kids sitting and playing on the grass. Ben smiled to see young mothers with new babies and continued walking towards the building. He was still far away, though in earshot, when the door opened and he stopped in his tracks.

Mal appeared, glancing around cautiously, and then locked the door behind her. In one hand was a water bottle with a handle. In one arm was a baby. A tiny little boy with blondish-brown hair who was dressed in purple. He was still small, looking around at the bright colors of the world as it moved, but old enough to hold his head up while Mal balanced him against her side.

How old was he? Not too old… Belle had been able to hold her head up at five months though she'd been a little late. This baby was also much bigger and probably older… he looked like he might be able to crawl and was clutching a rattle in his hand. Maybe about ten months old, then. Belle had been able to grab things by nine months, but not hold onto them until she was a little older. Ten months old and, counting backward, there were nine months in a gestation period and he had been gone for a little over nineteen months.

Uma appeared. She reached out for the baby. Mal handed him over. They exchanged whispers, anxious looks, and then Mal glanced in the direction of the pavilion. Her eyes landed on Ben before she'd even finished passing Uma the baby, presumably so Uma could care for him while Mal went back to the pavilion. He watched her mouth form the words "oh no". Uma looked up. Both girls stared at him from something like thirty feet away while Ben took in the sight.

A child dressed in purple with brown hair. His hair. A boy child. His son.

Ben ran a hand through his hair and turned away. Everyone's panicked and shocked expressions suddenly made sense, he thought as he wandered back to the pavilion. Belle rushed past with a group of kids, laughing and clutching Molly the Doll to her chest. She had a brother. He had a son.

Audrey stopped him when he got close enough. "Ben?" She asked. "Ben, what did she say?"

"Listen, Audrey," Ben took her hands, squeezed them, and closed his eyes. She would have to be told. He had to come clean. "Listen, honey, I don't want to talk right now, but I swear we'll work everything out soon. Everything will be okay." He released one hand to run it down her cheek.

"Wait, Ben!" Audrey frowned. "What's going on? What did she say? We still have things to figure out."

"Audrey, please, I need some time."

"Ben, I need at least a few answers! What are we going to do? Where are we going to stay? How are we going to feed Belle?"

Ben put a finger to her lips. His world felt very loud. All he could think about was the crushing guilt on his shoulders and the baby that he'd seen with Mal. His son.

"I need time," Ben whispered to Audrey, and then wandered past her, back out to the woods to think.

* * *

**To clarify, yes, Ben is in shock.**


	3. Chapter 3

Audrey's marriage had been hanging by a thread since the year she'd married, and she knew it.

She wasn't sure why, but they'd never quite gotten it right, he and her. She'd figured that their lives were similar and they had similar goals and they were compatible, but then he liked books and learning and quiet and plain a lot more than she did. And people - he also liked people. She had never gotten used to seeing him surrounded by others.

She'd be the first to admit that she knew he was unhappy.

In hindsight, she hadn't meant to isolate him. It had only been after he'd started changing things that she'd realized what she'd accidentally done. Ben didn't talk to his mother or his daughter or even her because she was in too much pain to entertain him for long. They'd gone to a party after one of his long business trips, right after he'd fired Belle's last nanny, and that was when she'd realized. He hadn't talked to people in years. And it was because of her, and she didn't even talk to him on most days. Ben had lost year's worths of time that she hadn't even bothered trying to fill.

This last year and a half had been awful. He'd ripped everything apart and he'd been stubborn and yes, it was all small things at a time(aside from him throwing out everything from their rooms), but Audrey had been shocked by the change and had wondered what had caused it. Why was he suddenly so obsessed with browns and greens and indoor potted plants? What was so special about being outside? Why couldn't he close all the windows?

Now, it was looking like she hadn't known much about him at all.

Belle ran by and set Molly the doll down beside Audrey. "Mommy?" She asked, tugging on Audrey's hand a little. "There's a mommy with her baby over there. A real baby. Can I go see it?"

"Be gentle," Audrey nodded. She watched Belle turn and dash away. A woman with blue hair was walking up the path with her baby in arm. Belle and a group of other kids reached her and she bent down to show them the little one. Audrey tilted her head to the side as Belle cooed and waved.

"Belle would be such a good big sister," she thought. Once upon a time, Ben had wanted a large family. He'd talked about it with her once, long ago. But that had been before Belle and before they'd stopped living together. Now, Audrey didn't know what he wanted. She didn't even know what she wanted.

"Excuse me?" a voice came from above. Audrey looked up. The blue-haired woman had come closer. Her baby was gone - Audrey glanced behind her and spotted Belle sitting in the road, holding the child. The other kids gathered around to smile and take the baby's hand. "Are you lost?" she asked.

Audrey shifted uncomfortably. The woman was very beautiful and looked immaculate. She couldn't believe someone like this had come from the Isle of the Lost. She and Mal and Uma were all gorgeous. "Sort of," she agreed and wasn't surprised when her voice broke. "I'm waiting for my husband to come back. He's… a little stressed, so he went for a walk."

"Ah," the woman nodded, examining Audrey. Audrey shifted. She was in sweatpants and a patterned tee. Her bathrobe had been shed in the carriage, but she'd been wearing these clothes for two days. She took a seat on the table bench beside her and stuck out a hand. "I'm Evie."

"Oh?" Audrey asked. "You're one of the people in charge, then."

"Not anymore," Evie shook her head and smiled. "I decided to… take a family route. There's a boy who came from Auradon… he traveled out here and we've settled down. His name is Doug, and that's our daughter." She pointed over to the small child who Belle was still possessively cradling. "Mal is in charge now, mostly because she's the most powerful and she protects us. Sometimes she'll ask Uma and me for help, but I've been a bit busy with my baby."

"She's cute," Audrey nodded at the girl and sighed. "Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Audrey. Queen of Auradon."

Evie blinked and her eyes grew wide, though she didn't lose much composure. "Ben's wife?" she asked.

"Yes," Audrey pinched her lips together. She didn't like all these beautiful women knowing her husband and talking to him and… she took a deep breath. "You know about me?"

"Not much," Evie said in a gentle tone. "Just… things Ben mentioned about you."

"Evie!" Someone snapped from off to the side. Both girls turned around. Mal had reappeared with a water bottle that she held out to Audrey. She kicked a plant as she walked. "Where'd Ben go?" she demanded.

Evie blinked at Mal for several seconds as if she was seeing straight through her. Audrey took a drink and then answered. "I think he's just stressed," she said. "We had a small fight before he went off to find you… did he?"

Mal looked to the side. "I saw him, but then he walked off," she said slowly. "We need to figure out how we're going to help Auradon."

"What's happened?" Evie asked, rising to stand.

"My mother," Mal informed her. "The barrier was broken again."

"It was Hades," Audrey nodded, staring off into the distance. She could feel her mind beginning to blank out, but couldn't quite stop the gradual progression. "He broke it to come and find his daughter. Ben was going to send him over here, but then Maleficent showed up."

Evie fixed Mal with another look, but Audrey couldn't read it out of the corner of her eye. She was focusing on Belle and slipping farther away.

"What does he expect us to do?" Mal asked. Her voice sounded very far away. Audrey tilted her head. She had been spoken to. She should respond, shouldn't she? How should she respond? What was the question?

Belle looked so happy with that baby girl…

Oh, right. "Ben thinks you can stop her," she blurted out and turned back to the two girls. With a start, she realized they hadn't been where she thought they'd been. They'd moved, and were staring at her in confusion. Several minutes had passed by, and she had no idea what they were talking about now.

"Sorry," she apologized. "I… just tuned out. I meant… Ben thinks that Mal is powerful enough to go against Maleficent. He's hoping you'll help us." She leaned forward imploringly. Mal opened and closed her hands at her sides as she watched Audrey's pleading look.

Finally, she swallowed. "There are a few greater things at play here, Audrey," she said. "I don't know if Ben and I can work together very well."

Audrey's heart sank. "Well, give it a while, please?" she asked. "Let him ask you. He's better with words. Please, we need your help." It was the first time in a long time she'd encouraged the idea of someone speaking to Ben.

Mal shrugged and sat down on the table with her leg falling beside Audrey. "Let's wait here for him," she decided. "Evie, can you go find Uma? Tell her I might be a while?"

"Yeah," Evie nodded and headed off.

Audrey put her head in her hands. "Gods," she moaned, ignoring the pinch in between her ribs. "Where is he?"

Mal glanced over. She picked up a knife and a long stick that had appeared on the table while Audrey had been tuned out. Audrey jumped away. Mal shook her head. "I'm not going to hurt you," she mumbled. "It just helps me think."

Audrey slowly sat back down. "Are you making anything?" she asked.

Mal examined the tip of the stick. "No," she sighed. "I just… when I'm waiting, I feel like I'm in danger. So I try and find things like this to protect myself with. It's just… we call them Isle defects. We've all got them from when we left." She turned the stick over in her hands and began carving off the top. "So," she began in a soft tone. "What's it like being a queen?"

Audrey shrugged. She still felt like shying away from Mal's point. "It's… well, I'm not very good at it, I'm afraid. Ben's been doing most of the work for years."

Mal nodded. "He mentioned that when he was here," she informed Audrey. "How did you guys meet?"

"We grew up together," Audrey shrugged. "It was kinda common knowledge among our parents that we would grow up and get married. How about you?"

Mal made an amused snort in the back of her throat and looked up from her work. Audrey skimmed the horizon, checking for Belle running amongst the other kids, and then returned her gaze to Mal as the purple-haired girl started to speak. "I, uh, kidnapped him. On his way to Charmington, I thought he was coming to invade us. We got all the way to camp before we realized he was the king. Then when we were trying to figure out how to send him back without more people coming to kill us, he decided he wanted to stay."

Audrey paused, taking in the bizarre story. A great deal of resentment was felt for Mal having kidnapped Ben, but an even greater sadness filled her to consider he hadn't even felt to confide to her. Three days ago, she didn't even know that villain kids were in Auradon. "That sounds like him," she murmured. "You know… we used to joke in high school that if he were kidnapped and held for ransom, he'd end up making friends with the perpetrators and walking free. I didn't ever think it'd happen though."

"Well, as far as things go, I never thought I'd accidentally kidnap the King of Auradon and then have him rescue everyone."

"That's so bizarre to me!" Audrey complained. "I mean… he never told me he was gone. He never told me you guys were here. He first mentioned it to me when Hades showed up at the castle looking for his daughter. I just… he gets mad at me for not always talking to him but he's not entirely communicable either!"

Mal blinked on some of the larger words and Audrey felt her cheeks heat up. "Sorry," she mumbled. "I didn't mean to go off on you like that."

Mal shrugged one arm. "It's whatever," she said, then hesitated. "Are you and he… okay?"

"We are," Audrey nodded, smoothing her palms out over her knees. "I made some mistakes early in our marriage, but we're fine."

Mal slid off the tabletop and sat down beside Audrey on the bench. "He… used to say things in passing," she murmured. "We met friends of his who were in the area once… Li Lonnie? She said you didn't like people talking to him and he said you hadn't talked to him much either."

Audrey slumped a little in guilt. She closed her eyes. "I… haven't been feeling well since Belle was born," she admitted. "I never really recovered from the birth. It wasn't a hard birth or anything, but I didn't recover from it. I went through a small addiction to the pain meds for about six months and when I started coming back to myself, Ben wanted me to take up a bunch of responsibilities and stuff. I got overwhelmed and started pawning things off. Belle went to a nanny, I pawned off my court responsibilities, and Ben took back some of - I mean - all of the work I was supposed to do as queen. I never really took it back up because I never started feeling better."

"And then you stopped talking to Ben?" Mal asked.

"I felt like he was trying to pressure me into stuff," Audrey explained. "He wanted me to do all these things - go hiking and dancing with him, play with Belle. He kept asking why I wouldn't share a room with him and I… kinda snapped at him after a while. It was a relief when he stopped asking things, and then I didn't notice we had stopped talking until a little over a year ago."

"You're the queen of Auradon," Mal said. "Isn't there a doctor or something you can see?"

"I saw doctors," Audrey agreed. "Back when I first started feeling the pain. They said it was just after-affects. They prescribed me minor painkillers and exercise. But it's so strange - I was always active when I was younger and I don't understand why everything changed so quickly." She huffed and pressed her fingertips to her forehead. "Ben… wants me to get over it. He's not even being subtle anymore."

"That's interesting," Mal hummed. "He seemed like a very understanding fellow."

"He is," Audrey agreed. "But he can be a bit bull-headed. He thinks he knows what's best for me and the world and everyone in it. He reads people pretty well and thinks that means he's entitled to give advice."

"I see that," Mal laughed. "I see that - one-hundred-percent."

Audrey laughed with Mal. Her ribs ached, but it felt good. She leaned back against the table and her arm brushed against Mal's. Mal looked over at her. "So," she began, "What is Ben's fix-all solution?"

"He wants me to walk two miles every day without painkillers and drink a gallon of water each day." Audrey rolled her eyes. "Belle had some stomach issues, so he made her stop eating lots of her favorite snacks and forced her to walk down to the bus stop a mile away each day. It worked for her, but it just makes me more tired and hurt. He thinks I'm overreacting because I don't want to do it. He thinks everything can be cured with sunshine and hard work."

"It always struck me as odd - how much work he wanted to do down here," Mal agreed. "Once, he wouldn't let me take down a tent with magic so he could do it without. He was pretty strong."

"He was." Audrey smiled. "He used to lift weights in high school and was on a few different teams. Tourney… Swords and Sheilds…"

"I have no idea what those are," Mal snorted.

"Me neither," Audrey shrugged. "I did cheer, so all I had to do was smile and jump around when a goal was scored. I know nothing else."

Mal laughed again and the sound sunk deep into Audrey's bones. It was so comforting to be still like this. To laugh with someone her age.

"I didn't expect you to be like this," Mal pondered aloud. "I admit, I've been wondering what happened to Ben when he went back and I figured he was just… shut in a room somewhere."

Audrey's smile faded and she flinched. "Yeah, I screwed up," she mumbled. "I need to make it up to him somehow, but…" She curled her fingers across her stomach. "How long ago did Ben leave?"

Mal's smile faded somewhat as the question left Audrey's lips. It appeared that the subject of Ben leaving the camp was an area of sadness for her. She swallowed. "Nineteen months ago, almost twenty," she shrugged.

"Ah," Audrey nodded. "Sorry, my mind has been foggy for a long time. That must have been… gosh, he had this trip that he was gone on and I remember when he got back he ripped out everything in my - his bedroom and repainted. Threw all the old furniture out and had Belle help him pick new stuff. And they did the same to her room and the living room and everywhere in the palace except for my room."

"He said he was going to go back and change things," Mal recalled. "He said he didn't like all the pink."

Audrey shook her head. "Everything is blue and brown now," she explained. "And he sleeps with the windows open. I think I get it now - he must miss being out here."

"Maybe," Mal agreed. Audrey eyed her with a narrow look.

"You're a lot easier to talk to than I thought you'd be," she said.

"Because I'm Maleficent's daughter?"

"That and you're a girl my age," Audrey twiddled her thumbs. "I haven't talked to other girls since I started dating Ben."

Mal shook her head. "More good women have been lost to marriage than to war," she mourned. "I don't understand it."

Audrey looked at the ground. That was interesting, she thought. Lost to marriage… lost in marriage. She was lost in her marriage, wasn't she? It was like she was fumbling around in the darkness, looking for what to do next… It didn't help that there wasn't any love between her and Ben still. More than ten years of marriage and nothing. He was as lost in this as she was. How were they going to get out of this trap?

It occurred to Audrey that the world felt very sluggish and dim. She'd fallen into another slump. Another dizzying, time-defying slump where she didn't know how long she'd be in it. She couldn't even close her eyes to wait for it to be done.

Audrey watched years fall off her life.

* * *

When she came to, Belle was crying at her legs and it was dark. She was still sitting on the bench, but she was alone and Mal was gone. Frost was creeping up her legs. A chilly fall breeze blew her hair over her head.

"Belle?" Audrey mumbled, then reached down to feel her daughter's icy skin. Belle jumped with a start and then began to cry even harder as she wrapped her arms around Audrey's legs.

"Mommy! Mommy!" She hiccuped and hid her face away. "I want to go home! I want to go home!"

Audrey tried to pry Belle's arms off of her legs but to no avail. She wasn't strong enough. Belle was in hysterics. How long had she been trying to get Audrey's attention? Where was Ben?

"We can't go home yet," Audrey murmured, running a hand down her daughter's icy cheek. "But we need to find a place to stay. Do you know where Mal went?"

"I'm here," Someone called through the darkness. Audrey turned and saw the purple-haired leader approaching from the direction of the giant building. "It's good to see you're back."

"Sorry," Audrey breathed, finally managing to gather Belle into her arms with a huff. Belle squeezed her ribs and tears swelled in Audrey's eyes. "Mal? Has Ben been seen anywhere yet? He went looking for you earlier, did you see him?"

Mal twisted her hands. "I saw him," she nodded. "But he walked away and I didn't see where he went."

Audrey sighed and squeezed Belle tightly. "I… hate to intrude, but I need a place I can put her for the night. Do you know one? I… don't want my baby to sleep on the ground."

Mal looked at Belle. Her hands crept to her pockets. When she swallowed, she looked like she was in some sort of pain. Did she want children? Or maybe, on the Isle, something had happened to give her some compassion. Either way, Mal cleared her throat. "It's, uh, late," she said. "Everyone turned in around when the sun went down. We don't like wasting candles and haven't gotten lights here yet. And most of these places are small… I don't know where we could put you."

Audrey's throat swelled up. "She squeezed Belle tighter. "Is there any place I could-"

"There's mine," Mal offered. She turned and nodded in the direction she'd come from. "I was kinda made to be the place where we could have a traveler or two stay, but… you might not want to stay with me."

"Actually, I would love that," Audrey sighed and closed her eyes in relief. "It doesn't matter if you have a bed or not. Just so long as I can lay her down for the night-"

"There are beds," Mal assured her. "And rooms. You can stay as long as you need. Her and you and-" Mal's voice cracked. "-Ben."

A few tears ran unbidden down Audrey's cheeks. She wiped them away. "Thank you," she hiccuped.

"Hang on," Mal held up her hands, biting her lower lip. "I… you're not the only ones there. I have a son - he's still a bit young and wakes up in the night. That may bother you."

"No, not at all," Audrey shook her head. "I remember what that was like. And we recently discovered that Belle loves babies anyways. If you need help, she'd probably love to help you with him." Audrey kissed Belle's hair. "But maybe when she's more awake."

Mal chuckled and watched again as Audrey cradled her little girl. She swallowed as if to get a lump out of her throat. "Well, you're welcome to stay. I mean… I can't imagine trying to lay my son out here. I was coming back to see if I could pull her away from you when I heard you were up. I had to leave to go and nurse and everything."

"I get it," Audrey smiled. "I was there once, too." She reached out to take Mal's hand and squeeze it. "Thank you for thinking of her."

"Of course." Mal gave her a tight little smile. Audrey assumed she was still worried about her son disrupting them. "Why don't we go lay her down, and then come back and see if Ben will show. If he doesn't, then it won't be the first time he's slept out on the ground outside."

Audrey laughed and began to follow Mal's lead back through the little village. It amazed her how different the three parts were. And the house plots seemed to be circular with curving paths and diamond-shaped intersections. Beautiful.

Mal lived in the towering building that Audrey had seen before coming into the barrier. Ben had called it 'the lookout'. The name suited the building.

"This house is so tall," Audrey marveled.

Mal shrugged. "I like to be high up," she replied.

She guided Audrey up a floor to the first room and opened a door to reveal a bed for travelers with a simple desk and a chest at the foot of the bed. Think hides covered a mattress of some sort. Audrey pulled back a few covers and Belle began to unlatch her frozen fingers from around her mom's neck. Her poor little digits were discolored with cold. Audrey kissed each one of them with Mal standing in the doorway watching and then helped Belle remove her shoes and lay down onto the pillow.

"Is dad gonna come read with me?" Belle asked. Her voice cracked a little - she'd been crying out in the cold and it was catching up with her.

"Not tonight, darling. We're going to go try and find him," Audrey whispered. "You can yell at him for not being here in the morning."

"I'll take you up on that," Mal whispered as a joke from the doorway. Audrey chuckled, but Belle was already asleep, too tired to understand the joke.

They walked back down to the pavilion. Audrey glanced up at the tall house as they left. "How could you possibly climb all those steps to the top?" she wondered. Her legs were screaming after only the one flight.

"I fly," Mal shrugged. "That's how I got to the edge of the barrier today, remember?"

Mal somehow procured two water bottles for both of them and they sat back down at the tables to see if Ben would reappear. "Thank you for helping me," Audrey murmured. "I don't know what I would do without you."

"I get it," Mal shrugged. "I used to sleep on the ground when my mom kicked me out of the house when I was younger. I wouldn't wish that on anyone."

"She kicked you out?" Audrey frowned. "How awful."

"It was only for a few nights at a time," Mal shrugged. "And I was very young. She stopped doing it when I got older."

Audrey shook her head. She couldn't imagine it. "Well, I'm so sorry. Thank you for understanding, though. And again, for helping us."

Mal took a drink of her water and focused her gaze on the wood grains in the table. She traced one with her fingertip. "I wouldn't leave you with nowhere to go," she mumbled.

"You're like Ben," Audrey laughed. "Except you don't run off, apparently."

"Oh, no," Mal shook her head. "I do." She went stiff as if she were trying to figure out something to say. After several seconds of silence, Audrey tried again to make conversation.

"You know, it's nice to talk to someone after all these years," she marveled. "Maybe we could be friends."

At this, Mal flinched away and shut her eyes. "I would like that," she said. "But maybe you should talk to Ben first. I'm not sure if you'll think the same way when he comes back. Furthermore, I'll understand if you both don't feel comfortable being in my house at all. Just know that the three of you… well, my door is always open."

"I don't understand," Audrey said with a frown. "Did you two have a falling-out? You seemed like friends earlier."

Mal swallowed. "It's complicated," she mumbled.

"I get that," Audrey shrugged. "I mean, I bet my problems are different than yours, but I understand when things don't just _work."_

Mal nodded along to Audrey's words. As she did, there was the sound of someone stumbling. Both girls looked up and Audrey was relieved to see a familiar shape walking towards the pavilion. It was Ben, looking half-drunk and overwhelmed. "Ben!" Audrey called, slowly getting to her feet. Ben looked up and his spirits seemed to drop when he saw both Mal and Audrey sitting beside each other. Still, he wandered over.

Audrey hugged him. He hugged her back, but softly. Audrey could feel that he was staring at Mal. She withdrew and took in his gaze. He looked defeated.

"Where's Belle?" He asked in a dry, sandpapery tone. Mal held out her water to him without comment. He took it, and Audrey sensed a correlation she didn't understand.

"She's asleep," Audrey explained. "Mal offered to let us stay in her home. There are beds there - we can rest and work everything out with Maleficent in the morning. We've been waiting for you to get back so we can tell you - you're welcome to stay there, she says."

Ben took a step back and shook his head. "No," he declined. "Thank you, but… considering the circumstance… I shouldn't be staying under the same roof as you, Mal." Mal nodded glumly.

"Circumstance?" Audrey echoed.

Ben fixed his gaze on the purple-haired fairy. "We need to talk," he muttered."

Mal nodded again. She seemed resigned.

Ben sat down across from Mal and Audrey sat beside him, slightly at an angle from Mal. Mal closed her eyes to brace for the coming conversation. Audrey found Ben's cold hand beneath the table and clenched it against her knee. Ben took three deep breaths. Then, he asked: "Why didn't you come to tell me?'

"Because it would have defeated the idea of you not ever knowing," Mal responded blandly. "I didn't want to… ruin everything."

Audrey looked between the two in confusion. She wanted to ask questions and didn't know where to start. Ben's eyes were filling with stubborn tears. He jabbed his index finger into the wood of the table as he spoke. " _He is mine too, Mal._ How could you have kept this from me? I could have helped you. I should have helped you. It's a responsibility to…" He tried off, struggling to get the words out of his mouth. Mal opened her eyes and looked through her bangs at Audrey. There was pain in her eyes. She slowly rose to her feet.

"Sit down," Ben commanded.

"Ben, look at Audrey. She's-"

" _Sit down."_

"No." Mal's eyes alit with glowing green power that looked like the smoke that had filled the palace. Audrey leaned away in shock. "Look at her. She's confused and doesn't know what's going on. You sinned, I sinned, whoop-do-doo. And yeah, I kept it from you. But can you at least not yell at me in a setting where she's going to have all the little pieces click together and hurt her even more? We screwed up. Just… spare her feelings." She shoved her hands into her pockets. "I'm going to walk around and I'll come back when you're ready for me. You need to talk to your wife, Ben."

She turned and walked away. Ben watched her go and didn't call for her back. Then he stood up and sat on the other side of the table, where he dropped his gaze to the wood grains and continued squeezing her hand in a vice-grip above the table. Audrey's skin felt chill. "Sinned?" she prodded.

Ben nodded. "Sinned," he affirmed. "Listen, Audrey, there's something… I need to tell you about this." He took a deep breath. "When I came to the Vk's and I met Mal, she wasn't like anyone I had met before. And she was confused by how kind I was to her despite the… circumstances we met in."

"She kidnapped you," Audrey supplied.

"Yes," Ben agreed. He closed his eyes. "And despite that, we shared something very intense right from the start."

Audrey's blood ran chill. "What?" she demanded, latching onto Ben's hand as if it were suddenly going to be pulled away from her forever. "What do you mean?"

"I didn't talk about you at first," Ben muttered. "But when I realized she was interested in me, I came clean. She backed off, but we were still… close. The night we arrived here-" he gestured around at the place they were sitting in the middle of, "-there was a celebration. I took a drink that was too strong for me without realizing and she did the same. And we slept with each other on the side of the river that night."

A bullet of betrayal whizzed through her. She started to cry. "Ben, I can't believe you!" She shouted. "Are you serious right now?" Her eyes were on fire as her hand shook. Ben squeezed it tighter. She squeezed back. How could this have happened? She couldn't believe it. Ben was supposed to be faithful and perfect… yet now all her worst nightmares were coming to life. She'd spent so long being terrified of being overlooked and tossed aside but now Ben had cheated and all those old fears were true. She wasn't good enough for him. She wasn't good enough for anyone, really. If Ben wouldn't stay faithful for her, would anyone?

Ben didn't say anything as she cried. She supposed he must be upset that his secret had come out. Or that he'd had to come clean.

"What did I do wrong?" Audrey blubbered and then mentally kicked herself for the question. She knew exactly what she'd done wrong. "No, wait, I mean… I just… why wasn't I enough?"

But really, she didn't want that question answered either. Ben bowed his head in shame. "We broke it off almost immediately after," he mumbled. "I chose to go back to Auradon. I wanted to make things work with you. She wanted to stay here and build things up. We agreed it wouldn't happen again and we separated."

That didn't help. It didn't help at all. Audrey wrestled her hand away from Ben and covered her face to continue crying as her eyes grew puffy and her skin sallow. He clasped his hands on the tabletop and waited until she tried holding in her sobs to hear what else he had to say.

"Today, when I was going to find her, I saw her pass a baby off to Uma," he murmured. "That's why I walked off. Because I realized…" He looked skyward. More tears were brimming in his eyes. "She had a son… and that son was mine. And I needed to process that."

"A son," Audrey gasped and wiped her eyes. "You have a son."

"Belle's brother," Ben nodded and agreed. He unclasped his hands to cover his face with them, rubbing on his tired eyes as he tried to keep from looking straight at Audrey. "I don't know his name… Mal and I haven't talked about it, but everyone else here knows she has a son and I'm sure word has gotten around since everyone could tell we had… connected."

"How could you have done this to me?" Audrey sobbed. "I just… why did you leave me? Why didn't you leave her sooner? Ben, I trusted you."

"No, you didn't," he said softly. "But you should have, and I should have acted differently regardless of how much you trusted me. I thought I would be strong enough to resist and I felt responsible for these people. That's why I didn't leave."

"And?" Audrey sniffled.

Ben swallowed. "And I didn't want to go back," he muttered. "I… life was awful, Audrey. I liked being out here because I was useful. I had a purpose. I didn't want to go home and be… shut up all the time." He drummed his fingers on the table. "I'm sorry. I tried to fix things though. I knew I messed up and I was hoping I could come back and make things better with you and move on. I didn't expect that she would-" he waved a hand off in the distance.

"What are we going to do?" Audrey hiccuped. Ben didn't say anything. That could mean one of two things. Either he didn't know or he had already thought it out and knew she wouldn't like the answer. Audrey looked up. "Ben?" she asked.

Ben turned his head. "Auradon's bill of inheritance, clause three," he mumbled.

Audrey's head spun. "What?" she asked.

Ben shook his head. "Clause three of the bill of inheritance states that male children have priority over female children. Eons old. We never changed it. Most people only have one child. And back after Belle was born, we ratified a bill that Corona and Arendelle proposed that said heir children can ascend the throne regardless of matrimonial bonds. That means both statements are being upheld by Auradon law."

Audrey felt her mouth fall open a little bit more. In her sleep-deprived and overwhelmed brain, none of those words were making any sense. Ben swallowed and rephrased them. "That means Belle isn't the primary heir to the throne anymore," he explained. "If Mal and I's son chooses to relinquish his right after age fourteen, she'll be the primary heir again. She'll be twenty-one at the minimum. But if he decides to keep his right to the throne, she'll never have the option of becoming queen. Even if I changed the law, because it was the law when he was born, his place in line wouldn't be moved."

"You've ruined her life."

Audrey annunciated every word as she spoke them. And she was sure of her conviction, too. If Ben had cheated, then fine. If there was another child, she'd somehow find a way to live with them, she was sure. But now Belle had been unfairly tossed aside as if her life didn't even matter and her spot was being filled with an accident child and the grandson of Maleficent and…

How could Ben have been so careless? How could life have been so cruel?

Ben looked down at his hands and rolled his ring - which was normal now, not the blue she'd picked out years ago - around his finger. "He'll need to be trained," he muttered. "Probably when he's a bit older. It's the same stuff I've been doing with Belle for the last few months. And he'll probably live in the palace while that happens but I don't know if he'd spend the rest of his time out here. Last I checked, Mal wanted to stay here and protect everyone. He'll need to be with his mother just like Belle needs to be with you."

"And you?" Audrey asked. "What about you? What about us?"

Ben made a motion with his hand as if he were going to reach for her but then thought better of it. "I made my decision to stay, Audrey. Yes, I made a mistake, but I wanted to correct that and stay faithful to you. And I'm sorry to have dragged Mal into a mess with me and you, but I can't abandon her now. I'm going to have to find a way to balance raising my son with her and our daughter with you. The baby… he didn't do anything wrong. I know how painful this must be for you and I don't expect you to like him much, but he still deserves to know me and Mal deserves my help. But I won't leave you, either. We made commitments, remember?"

"And a fat lot of good those did," Audrey hiccuped. She felt like throwing up. "I knew this would happen. I always knew. I knew I wouldn't be enough and that-"

"Audrey, please stop," Ben murmured. "You would have been enough if you had ever loved me. And even then, I stayed with you all these years. Even when you chased away everyone I know and took away almost all the things I loved. Even when I had to fight you for the right to see my mom. I made the mistake and I'll take that responsibility, but you shouldn't act like you were doing everything perfectly in our relationship." He drew a finger down the center of the table. "If you don't want to see me, I'll understand. And I hope you'll understand why I think I shouldn't stay in Mal's home. At least not now, while we're figuring all this out. But I think you should - you should get some rest and be somewhere warm."

"What does it matter?" Audrey wiped more tears away. "It's done. You cheated on me. Who's to say it won't happen again?"

"That's why I'm not staying in Mal's house," Ben agreed.

"You'd go back to her?" Audrey demanded. "Is that what you're saying?"

"No," Ben denied, though Audrey could hear the strain and the pondering in his tone. "I told you. I'm staying with you. I promised I would."

Audrey squeezed her eyes shut and then used the table as leverage to get to her feet. Ben got to his feet, but she waved him off. "Don't!" She snapped. "I don't want your help Ben - I don't want anything to do with you right now!" She was going to leave him out in the cold and go back to Mal's house to curl up with Belle and cry until her soul hurt less than her body. And as much as it would suck to struggle back to the building alone and climb those bloody stairs without help, it would suck a lot more to have him help her.

"Audrey, I really am sorry-"

"I don't want your apology!" She screamed. "Gods, Ben, I'm hurt! I don't understand and I'm hurt! Leave me alone - I don't want to see you!" She raised her hand to smack him but all the strength left her arm with the sudden movement. Instead, she turned and focused on breathing with her broken ribs as she walked away as fast as she could. He could have followed her, but he didn't. Part of Audrey was glad - she didn't want to see him and probably wouldn't want to see him for a long time. The other part wondered… if she had purple hair, would he follow her?


	4. Chapter 4

He would have given up his entire kingdom to have been spontaneously murdered right then and there.

Was there anyone angry enough in Auradon to kill him right now? Maybe Maleficent, but that seemed a bit dramatic. Still, Ben would have given anything for someone to have driven a bullet through his skull right then.

He'd ruined his life. He'd ruined Belle's life. He'd ruined Mal's life. He'd ruined Audrey's life. He'd even ruined his son's life, whatever his name was, and he hadn't even met the kid yet.

Ben dropped his head into his hands and rubbed his tired eyes. He had no idea what he was supposed to do now. He'd formed a tentative list while he'd been away, sitting in the tiny hidden area by the river where he'd woken up without Mal beside him. First, he needed to talk to Audrey. That had been done. Then, he still needed to work things out with Mal, and lastly beg for her help still. After all, Maleficent was still out there.

The table slumped dramatically in front of him and then returned to a stable posture as someone sat down. Ben glanced through his fingers, glimpsed purple, and then looked up, leaning away even though he really wanted to lean forward. "You're back," he murmured.

"I made sure Audrey got inside okay," Mal offered by way of explanation. "She looked pretty… beat up."

Ben nodded. "Yeah. She didn't deserve that."

"You know, she's not as bad as I made her out to be in my head," Mal sighed. "Especially when it comes to Belle… I relate to her."

"You," Ben repeated, "Relate to the daughter of Aurora. Okay."

Mal snorted. "Crazy," she agreed. Ben watched her pick at her nails.

"How soon did you find out?" He asked.

"Find out about what?" Mal raised an eyebrow at him. "Who Audrey was? It was pretty obvious from-"

"The baby," Ben interrupted. "Our son."

Mal's expression fell. She stopped picking at her cuticles and instead traced the wood grains in the table with the tip of her nail. "Not long after you left," she recalled. "I mean… we were a little busy building everything, but I don't get sick ever so when the nausea started hitting, it didn't take long for me to link it."

"A month?" Ben asked. "Maybe two?"

"Maybe right in the middle," Mal agreed.

"You should have come to the palace," Ben chided her. "No - don't give me that look. You should have. I would have taken care of you, and-"

"Listen, Ben, I appreciate the gesture, but I think you're missing the big picture here." Mal set her finger on a random spot in the table. "You left. You chose to go back to Audrey and I supported you because that was where you belonged and this is where I belonged. Protecting my people. And so finding out I was pregnant… yeah, that sucked, but it didn't change those decisions. Who am I to show up on the palace doorstep with a new baby and drop that responsibility on you?"

"I think you're missing the point," Ben gritted his teeth. "He's my son too. My responsibility regardless of what I decided. I'm the reason he happened to you and you should have held me accountable for that mistake from the beginning. I should have had the opportunity to at least help you out with him."

"He's not a mistake to me," Mal glared at him.

Ben reeled. "I… didn't mean it like that," he corrected himself.

"No, you only meant it as in 'I regret this'," Mal snapped. "You don't even want him, Ben. Why are you trying to argue that-"

"I do want him!" Ben protested. "With every fiber of my being, I do. I mean… you remember me with all the kids here. I love them. And I only have - had - one. To know I have a son is kind of a miracle despite-"

"You don't even know his name," Mal cut him off.

Ben blinked up at her. He sighed. "Not to make a tense situation humorous, but I hope you named him something better than Bertha or Florian."

The corner of Mal's mouth twitched up. "I don't know if I want you to know," she murmured. "Isn't there some sort of Auradon roll you need to put him on?"

"Yes," Ben thought, but didn't say anything aloud. Mal exhaled. "Xavier James," she said. "We named him Xavier James."

"Prince Xavier James Adams," Ben thought, leaning back even more. "Wow," he whispered. "That's a good name."

"Evie picked it," Mal nodded, brushing a bit of her hair behind her ear. "I didn't quite trust myself. She wanted Xavier John, actually."

Ben nodded and brushed a bit of nothing off the tabletop. "When can I meet him?" he whispered.

Mal looked a little startled. "You want to?" she asked. Ben nodded. She crossed her arms. "Well… you can't take him with you," she said. "I want you to know that right off the bat. I want him here with me."

That was going to be a problem. Ben chewed on his lip. "Technically, he's next in line for the throne now."

"I know."

Ben looked up at her. Her eyes were stormy now as she crossed her arms even tighter. "That's why you didn't come to tell me," he whispered.

"Well, look what it did," Mal scoffed. "You've yanked Audrey and Belle into this full-force."

"If you had come to me right off the bat, we could have changed the law before he was born," Ben snapped a little before forcing himself to calm down. "And as it was, the moment we'd tried to put the crown on Belle's head, it would have rejected her. Then we would have figured out, one way or another, that there was another heir out here."

"I didn't know that," Mal murmured, looking crestfallen and guilty as she put her chin atop her hands. "I don't suppose… there's no way for her to now-"

"Belle can't get the throne until he releases it and he has to be fourteen to do so," Ben explained. "So she won't be able to be crowned queen at sixteen no matter what. And if he - Xavier - decides to keep it, then I'll need to train him. That training will have to be done at the palace."

"My place is out here, Ben," Mal reminded him. "Auradon doesn't know I exist, remember?"

"Irregardless," Ben shrugged. "He's set to be the next King of Auradon." He drummed his fingers on the table and sighed.

"I guess… I screwed up then," Mal sighed. "I didn't realize. Sorry."

Ben shook his head. "The problem wouldn't have existed if I hadn't… If I'd had a bit more self-control."

"Way to cut me and my feelings out of the problem, Ben," Mal reprimanded. He blinked at her easy and somewhat careless tone. She blinked at him, waiting for a response. Not yelling, not snapping, only waiting.

"You've changed," he muttered. "You would have yelled that at me before I left."

"I had a baby," Mal shrugged. "That tends to teach you lots of patience really fast."

Ben snorted. "I guess if you're taking care of them," he rolled his eyes.

"Don't shoot Audrey in the foot like that," Mal chided. "She's struggled more than you know. You just haven't listened to her."

Ben almost fell off his chair. "What are you talking about?" he asked. "I listen to her whenever she wants to talk to me - she just doesn't."

"Because you haven't listened and she's stressed."

"What? About me closing the spa?"

Mal stared at Ben and then shook her head slowly. An odd expression came across her face, like he was fond of him but still thought what he was doing was silly. "Nevermind," she mumbled. "Are you sure you don't want to sleep at my house? I have a couple of extra bedrooms… "

"No," Ben shook his head. "I - thank you, Mal, but I… I still pick Audrey." His voice cracked and broke on the end of his sentence and he almost choked. "I wish… I could but I think we both know what would happen if I stayed there. Especially since Audrey and I still aren't sharing a room."

Mal nodded and reached across the table. Ben flinched back, but she only set her hand atop his and squeezed. God, her hands had so much strength in them. When she pulled back, his hand followed hers a few inches. "I understand, Ben," she murmured. "More than you think I do." When he looked into her eyes, there was nothing but clarity there. Some sort of demented peace.

Mal got up. "You ought to get some rest. It's late, and Audrey will need your help with Belle tomorrow."

"Wait," Ben got up too - so fast he banged his knee into the table. "Xavier - I want to see him. Can I?"

"Oh," Mal blinked. She glanced back in the direction of the tower and her eyes lit up a little. "He's already asleep. I can't fly him down without waking him up and it's probably a bit too cold for him to be out. Do you want to wait until morning?"

"No," Ben stepped out over the bench. "Please, can we go up?"

"Alone?" Mal asked. "With me?"

A lump formed in Ben's throat and he felt his face go crestfallen. Sure, they were fine here aside from the fact Ben was aching to lean forward and touch all of that smooth skin and trace every strength-filled muscle on her, but behind closed doors it would be so easy… he could lean forward and accidentally brush her wrist… she could trip and stay on him for a second too long… And he knew how easy it would be to fall.

He sat back down. "I guess maybe we should wait," he muttered.

"I'll bring him down in the morning," Mal agreed. "And, uh, there are blankets and some spare cots in the storehouse here." She pointed to a portion of the pavillion that was walled away. With a flick of her hand, the lock clicked open on the door. "I'll leave my door open if you need it. Belle is on the second floor and Audrey took the third. Just… don't freeze to death out here. We'll find a place for you in the morning."

"I'm fine with being outside," Ben shook his head. "I've missed it."

"So Audrey said," Mal nodded.

She turned and as she did, large purple and feathered wings appeared on her back. Ben watched without much reaction. He hadn't known she had wings, but wasn't surprised to learn.

Mal took off and Ben was finally left alone underneath an unwavering electric light above his head. He realized, now that she was gone, that he'd forgotten to ask Mal about everyone else and how much they knew.

* * *

Ben woke up to Hades nudging him. "What're you doing out here?" he asked.

With all the crazy that had happened, it took a few seconds for Ben to remember how he could be talking to the God of the Underworld, much less answer his question. "I wanted to be outside again." he shrugged and stood up. "How are you?" he asked. "Did you find your daughter?"

"I did," Hades nodded, giving a little sigh. "She was a bit too busy to talk though, so I haven't said anything yet. Apparently I'm a grandfather now."

"Really?" Ben let a smile cross his face. It felt odd to smile after yesterday. "That's wonderful!"

"Yeah," Hades nodded. "I don't know who her partner is yet. I'll have to scare the tar out of them when I meet them."

"Ah, don't be too rough on them," Ben chuckled. He climbed out of the sleeping bag he'd assembled and began to fold up everything to put back into the storehouse. It was still very early. People were wandering around outside their homes, but no one had seemed to spot them yet. "Has anyone come around?" he asked.

"A white-haired boy," Hades nodded. "But that was as I was walking up. He went that way." Hades pointed in a general direction, but Ben didn't follow his finger.

"Probably Carlos," he nodded.

As he finished folding up the blankets, someone slung an arm around his head. For a moment, he panicked, but then he heard frenzied giggling. Not from a child, but from a man. "Hey, Harry," he said.

"Oh, if'n it isn't our wee king. Back for another round?" Harry released Ben and dropped down on the pavement beside him. "I don't s'ppose you've heard… you got yourself into a world of trouble."

"I've heard," Ben cut him off shortly. "And it's already been worked out. Thank you for your concern."

Harry's laughter grew even thicker. He opened his mouth to say something else, but then someone behind Ben said: "Harry, quit." Ben glanced behind him. It was Evie, and she was holding hands with someone familiar.

"Doug?" Ben asked, getting to his feet. Doug a little salute. "What are you doing here?"

"I… uh…" Doug held up his and Evie's hands awkwardly. "We're together! I'm with her."

"That's great, Doug," Ben smiled even though a pain had erupted in his chest. "I'm happy for you."

"Yeah," Doug nodded. "We've been married for almost a year and we have our daughter asleep at the house."

Another pain. Ben kept his smile. "That's great," he smiled.

Evie reached forward to brush off his arm. "Carlos said you were sleeping on the ground," she murmured. "Did Mal talk to you about-"

"I chose to sleep out here," Ben assured her. "I missed the outside. And yes, Mal and I talked."

"We came to invite you two for breakfast," Evie said, glancing between him and Hades. "I don't think I've been given the rundown, yet. Was Hades released from the Isle?"

"Discharged," Ben said before Hades could tack on anything else. "However, we have Maleficent in Auradon now. We need Mal's help."

"Ah," Evie glanced towards the towering building. "Will your wife and daughter need a place to eat too?" she asked. "I made lots, just in case."

"I don't know if they're awake yet," Ben said. Maybe I should - oh, there's Belle."

Down the path, Belle was holding tightly onto her doll Molly with one hand and holding Uma's hand in the other. She jumped over blades of grass on the pavement as she went. Evie chuckled as she looked up and waved with broad gestures to her dad.

"Found this one wandering," Uma called, releasing Belle to run to Ben when they were close enough. Ben bent down and Belle rushed straight into his arms with a shout. "You shouldn't leave kids alone, Ben."

"Ah, this one's smart enough," Ben teased, flicking Belle on the nose. "Did you sleep well?" he asked her.

"Yeah," she shrugged one shoulder.

"Do you know where Mom is?" he asked.

"No," Belle said. "I think she's still sleepy."

"Let's go get breakfast," Evie suggested, holding out her free hand to Belle. "You can play with my baby after you eat, if you want."

Belle immediately left Ben and took Evie's hand. The three began to walk away and Ben got the impression he and Hades were meant to follow. They waved goodbye to Harry and Uma as the sea duo began to head back into Uma's sector.

Evie's house had blue tiling on the roof and a beautiful whitewash on the exterior walls. Her flowerbeds were looking a bit sparse with the seasons, but her home was still lovely. Evie led Belle right up to the door and let her wander in. Belle slipped off her shoes at the entrance. "Your house is so pretty!" she marveled.

"Thank you," Evie smiled. "We have breakfast in here - come and get some."

Breakfast turned out to be burritos stuffed with scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, peppers and cheese. Ben recognized a lot of Auradon items in Evie's household that the VK's now had access to. Evie served up Belle a large portion onto a china plate that Belle balanced carefully to a large table with a figurine in the center. Molly the Doll was placed in the chair beside her with a little food set on a napkin in front of her.

"So, you did talk to Mal?" Evie asked, handing Ben a plate.

"Yes," Ben nodded. "We've… got a few things figured out, but it'll take time."

"I thought there wasn't anything going on with you two?" Doug asked, pulling a bottle of orange juice out of the fridge. "What happened?"

"We got drunk," Ben replied.

Hades gave them all an odd look. "What?" he asked.

The front door opened, interrupting them all. Down the hall, Ben heard Mal yell "Evie? You home?"

"Kitchen!" Evie called, picking up a new plate and handing it to Hades. She picked up a new one for Mal, who appeared in the doorway. Her eyes zeroed in on Hades before flitting momentarily to Ben. Her lips pinched.

"Good morning," Hades said softly.

"Good morning," Mal replied in a tart tone. She stepped further inside and Ben almost dropped his plate to see her cradling a bundle to her ribs.

"Is that him?" he asked, siding his breakfast onto the table beside Belle and then crossing the room to Mal. He made to put a hand in the small of her back and then reminded himself otherwise and put it on her shoulder instead.

"This is Xavier," Mal nodded and then carefully loosened the bundles that had kept the baby warm during the trip to Evie's home. The moment she began to take away the blankets, Xavier began to squirm. Hades hovered over Ben's shoulder a little to watch as Xavier wrestled one arm free and gave a little cry of outrage. Mal put the extra blankets over her shoulder and then passed Xavier to Ben with both hands.

Tears formed in Ben's eyes. He leaned against the wall as Xavier clutched at the last remaining blanket with a clenched fist and examined Ben carefully. They looked alike. Xavier had his darker eyes and his tanner skin. His hair too, though his face more closely resembled Mal's. And despite being older, he was smaller than he should be. Ben would probably have a short son.

"Go sit down," Mal urged. "I don't want you to drop him."

Ben sniffed and used the back of his hand to wipe away tears before he took a few steps away, used his foot to draw out a chair, and sat down with the baby in his lap. Xavier pulled himself up to sit and looked all around at the room. Beside Ben, Belle squealed and leaned over with grabby hands to wave at Xavier. "Hi Xavier!" she cheered.

Mal set a careful hand on Ben's shoulder. "What do you think?" she mumbled.

"He is so small," Ben sniffed. "Just… wow." He wiped another tear away.

"Do other people around here have babies?" Belle asked.

"A couple," Evie nodded. "There's me and Mal and then a few others."

"I've got a baby!" Belle exclaimed, leaning over to pick up Molly. "Her name is Molly and I check her vitals every day and make sure she eats lots of vegetables. She likes broccoli the best, which is good for me because broccoli is gross."

Evie chuckled and sent a sideways glance to Ben. Ben also caught a glimpse of Hades's expression - confusion.

"It looks like you're a little doctor," Mal smiled. "Good job looking after her."

"It's practice," Belle said. "Do you think I can look after Xavier? I'll be very careful," She climbed out of her seat, leaving Molly in her chair, and waved again to Xavier. Xavier waved back with a chubby little smile.

"I'm sure you'll get to see Xavier lots," Mal murmured, getting down on her knees to be beside Belle. A hand came up and began to trace careful fingers up and down her back.

"Where's his dad?" Belle asked. "Did he die?"

Hades leaned in a little, brow furrowed.

"No," Mal choked a little. "He's, well, uh…" She glanced up at Ben for help.

Ben took Belle's arm. "Belle, Xavier is your brother. He's Mal's and my son."

Hades took in a very ragged breath. "What?" he asked.

Belle stayed quiet and blinked for several seconds, scrutinizing Xavier. "So…" she trailed off. "Are you married to two people?"

"No, honey." Ben shook his head. "Mal and I aren't married. We just have a baby together."

"So Mal and he are going to come live with us?"

"Mal doesn't want to, no."

"So he's going to live with us?"

"He has to stay with his mom."

"Can't Mom be his mom?"

"It doesn't work like that."

Belle furrowed her brow as if this didn't make sense. "So he's only coming to visit?"

"That's right," Ben agreed.

Belle nodded. "Okay," she decided. "So long as I can take care of him when he's over, I guess that's okay." She held out her hands. "Can I hold him now?"

"Sit down," Mal advised. She looked a lot more relaxed now. Ben carefully passed Xavier to Belle after she'd secured herself back into her seat and chewed on his lip.

"Honey?" he said softly to Belle, brushing her ratty hair back. "He's going to be king one day."

Belle didn't even look up. "Sure," she agreed.

"That means you might not be able to be queen - even though mom and I said you would be."

"That's okay."

Maybe it was just because she was young that the gravity of the situation hadn't sunk in. It was such a small thing to her. She barely even cared. She'd been talking about liking doctors for a few months now, but he and Audrey had just passed it off as childish fantasy. Now… she could technically do it if she wanted. And if she grew out of liking doctors and dolls and little kids, then there would be options.

"I need something explained to me," Hades announced from behind everyone. They all glanced over to face them. Hades pointed at Xavier. "He," he began, "is your son?" He directed everyone's attention to Ben.

Ben nodded. "Yes," he said softly. "Mal and I had an affair when I was out here. She saw fit to not tell me about him."

"That was the first time you'd met him, right, Ben?" Doug asked. Ben nodded.

"I can't believe it," Hades shook his head. "The King of Auradon stepped out on his wife?"

Ben flinched away.

"It was a difficult situation," Mal said in a tart tone. She ran a hand down Belle's hair and her brown hair combed itself out with one swipe. Ben wasn't sure she'd meant to do that. Mal looked over at Evie. "Can I have two plates?" she asked.

"Does mommy know about him?" Belle asked.

"Yes," Ben nodded. He glanced over to Hades, who looked upset for some reason. Ben couldn't imagine why.

Evie passed Mal two full plates and Mal set one down on Belle's other side, away from Ben and still leaving a seat for Molly.. She leaned down to whisper into Belle's ear. "I need to run somewhere real quick. Do you want me to take him back?"

"No! I can watch him!" Belle bopped Xavier on the nose. "He's cute."

Mal glanced at Ben. He nodded. "I'll watch her with him," he promised.

Mal nodded and headed for the door with her other plate. Hades stopped her just before she reached the door. "I'd… like to talk to you," he said softly. "When will you have a moment?"

"I have no business with you," Mal replied in a cold, cold tone.

"Mallie, I'm not asking for a lot. Just to talk." He reached for her hand but Mal batted his wrist aside and continued walking away. Hades let his hand fall to his side, chewing on his cheek in defeat. Ben reached for Xavier, picked him up, and gestured for Belle to finish eating her breakfast. She pouted, but didn't throw a fit.

"I can't believe you got away with calling her 'Mallie'," Ben said. "She would have killed you two years ago."

Hades shook his head. He sat down on one of Evie's bar stools and buried his face in his hands before taking a deep breath.

Ben frowned. "Is everything ok-"

"Shut up!" Hades flung a hand out at him and snapped in a voice so cold it made Ben jump. "Just… everything is fine." His hair caught fire as he pressed his fingertips to his eyes.

Evie and Doug exchanged a wary glance. Evie moved closer to the sink, worrying that the flames might grow out of control. Ben stared at the God - he looked furious. His veins were popping out of his arms and his face was red as he took several deep breaths.

"Hades?" Ben asked.

Hades's face began to slowly return to normal color. He glared over his shoulder - a look so icy that Ben felt his muscles ache as if he'd been hit instead. "Boy," he growled. "You screwed with the wrong girl."

And with that line, a lot of things suddenly made sense to Ben. He pointed out the door. "Mal?" he asked. "She's… oh."

Hades had said that his daughter had left with the villains. That she was older now and he was a grandfather. Her mother was crazy and had given their daughter a horrible middle name. Ben recalled how he had enquired about Maleficent's daughter and the proud smile that had spread across his face. With everything that had been going on with him and Mal, he'd missed the fact that Hades's eyes were always on her, that he was watching her.

Going down this line of thought, Hades had just discovered that the King of Auradon had gotten his daughter pregnant and left. Every nerve in Ben's body was on edge as his hands shook.

"Hades… it's not at all what you think… I wasn't trying to coerce her into anything."

Evie immediately spoke up in his defense. "He's a good man, Hades," she said. "They just got drunk. That's all it was."

"What?" Belle asked.

"Nothing," Everyone replied.

"Did you do something wrong?" Belle asked.

Ben chewed on his cheek. "Yes," he admitted. "Dads aren't supposed to have babies with other moms."

"Is Mom mad?"

"Very."

"Oh." Belle looked down and picked up Molly to hold even tighter. She seemed very unsure suddenly. it wasn't a look Ben was used to seeing on his daughter. But it was reasonable. Belle adored her mother, and had grown a little sensitive after all the long months Ben had spent working with her. Even though Audrey was never around for much or for long, Belle was always looking around for her and collecting small trinkets to show her. It was Audrey who always got Belle ready, even when Ben offered to, and Audrey who Belle always liked to cuddle with when she was scared or tired.

It was Audrey who was hurting the most over this.

"Maybe I should go find Audrey and make sure she's okay," Ben muttered.

"If I were you, I wouldn't leave the house with him," Doug called over Evie's shoulder, nodding a little to Xavier. "Mal will implode outwards if she has to search the camp for him after trusting you to watch him. She likes knowing where he is all the time, even if she's not present. A bit obsessive."

"Doting," Evie corrected. "I do the same thing with Morgan. It's just because they're small."

"Morgan?" Belle perked up. "You have a Morgan too?"

"That's my little baby," Evie nodded. "She's asleep upstairs." She gestured to her head and Belle craned her neck towards the ceiling, as if hoping she could see through the sheetrock.

"Just wait, Ben," Doug said, returning Ben's focus to him from the roof. "Mal will be back soon. Besides, I bet Audrey probably needs lots of space."

**Incase anyone was wondering, I did lots of research on how these cheating situations affect households and found out that, often, younger kids don't understand what is going on until they reach 10-12 and that's when the gravity sinks in. Given that Belle has never actually seen a happy marriage and is a bit used to hearing/seeing her parents fighting, she's not going to question why this matters so much however she is very sad that her mommy is sad.**

* * *

**We're going to return to Audrey next chapter. Life is going to get both a lot better and a lot worse for her.**


	5. Chapter 5

Audrey woke drenched in her own sweat and shaking despite how weak she felt. She wished her body would lie still so she could let the heavy blankets of the bed weigh her down. She wanted to drown in them and find her way to the surface later. She could see sunlight streaming in through the window behind the curtains and casting light on the room around her. The light made her eyes hurt.

In the palace, Ben had ripped down most of the heavy curtains that had gone up after Belle had been born. He'd replaced them with sheer fabrics that let in as much light as possible. He'd done it after he'd come back from here. Back from her.

Audrey buried her face in the covers. A headache was setting in and she was starving. The memories of what had happened the night before were pinching at her brain. She couldn't believe it had happened… he'd finally cheated on her.

She didn't want to use the word 'finally', but if she was honest she could acknowledge how awful she'd been to him and how it wasn't that surprising how hard Ben fell once he discovered someone with mystery, wonder, and sass. And sure, her attitude wasn't an excuse for his actions, but she certainly hadn't been trying to keep him. And it was this thinking that in a cruel, twisted way… numbed the pain. He'd cheated on her. She'd been afraid he would for years and years and he finally had. And in a way, she'd contributed to it. And a part of her was relieved that she didn't have to sit around and wait, wondering if the day was soon coming where she'd discover his infidelity. Now she was free from wondering and doomed to the reality of the situation.

Audrey slowly forced herself out of bed. The room held a large bed next to a window before extending into a bathroom where a comb and a toothbrush lay. These Audrey took advantage of, trying to focus on keeping her hands from shaking before she turned the knob on the door and left.

She almost ran into Mal.

Mal blinked in surprise to see her so suddenly and then dropped her eyes to the floor. "Good morning," she mumbled. "How did you sleep?"

Audrey didn't reply. Her stomach was churning with betrayal still. This… girl had known. She'd known from the beginning who she was and had talked as if she hadn't known. She was the mother of Ben's kid - Ben's son.

When she said nothing, Mal extended something in her hands - a plate. It was piled high with food - scrambled eggs with bacon and peppers mixed in. Audrey took it - her hands were still shaking - and Mal cleared her throat. "I, uh, thought you might like some food," she offered. "I wasn't sure if you'd want to come down and see everyone… they're all at Evie's house, eating. Ben has Belle and, uh, yeah."

"Your son?" Audrey whispered.

Mal nodded.

Audrey sniffled and wiped her eyes. Mal wrung her hands. "Do you… want to talk to someone. I understand now if you hate me, but-"

"I'm okay," Audrey sniffed. "But thank you."

Mal nodded. She took a half step back. "Well… if you need me… anyone in town can lead you to Evie's house. It's just-"

She paused and examined Audrey's face then. She previously hadn't been looking at it. "Are you alright?"

Audrey realized she must look very sickly. "Just light-headed," she muttered. "And the usual pain. I'll be alright."

Mal chewed on her lip. She glanced toward the room Audrey had left, which was still dark. "Do you want me to draw the curtain back for you and open the window?"

"No," Audrey declined. "The light hurts my eyes and I get cold easily."

Mal pinched her lips together then. "Something's not right with you," she declared. Audrey thought that was quite the statement coming from an adulterer, but Mal stepped back into her room and felt down the covers where Audrey had been lying. "Even if you'd gotten up five minutes ago, this should still be warm," Mal said. "And you're swaying and you can't focus on my eyes… headache? But then you always feel weak and you don't like light and…" She shook her head. "Whatever crap doctors looked at you, they must have missed something. Something really bad or really obvious."

"Like what?" Audrey asked. She found herself sinking to the floor, but inside felt a large weight lifted off her shoulders. Regardless of who this girl was, someone finally understood! She was right - what she was experiencing wasn't normal.

"I don't know," Mal shook her head. "But we're going to get Uma and Evie up here. They've seen and treated everything from seizures to the common cold."

"I'm going to get help?" Audrey repeated slowly.

"We're going to get you help," Mal agreed. "And you can rub it in Ben's face once we figure it out."

A laugh escaped Audrey despite everything that had happened. Mal patted her shoulder and then helped her get off the floor and travel to bed. "Stay here and eat what you can," she recommended. "I'll be right back and we'll get this sorted out."

Audrey nodded and practically fell back into bed. A few bits of egg fell off the plate and with shaking fingers, Audrey tried to scoop them up. As she ate, her headache lessened until she was able to sit back up. Her hands stopped shaking as much.

About twenty minutes after Mal left, Audrey heard people climbing the stairs. Evie and Uma appeared first and their heads swiveled to look in at her as they stepped into the room. Uma frowned. "She looks pale," she said immediately. Then, to Audrey, "Can you stand up?"

Audrey did and very nearly fell over. Evie caught her and guided her to sit back down. Behind them, Ben, Belle, Mal, and Doug - who Audrey now realized must have been the very same Doug that Evie had been talking about - crowded into the doorway. Ben looked a little exasperated, but everyone else looked worried. Ben was holding a baby against his chest, but he gave him to Belle and directed Belle to go sit on a chair in the corner with him.

Evie tilted Audrey's head back and put her fingertips to her neck. "Her heartbeat is really fast," she murmured. "Doug, can I have that water?"

Doug lifted a water bottle, but Mal snatched it out of his hands and went into the room to press Audrey's shaking fingers around it.

"Guys, she never goes outside and never exercises. I think it's pretty clear what the issue is here," Ben declared as he, too, stepped around Doug and went to sit next to Audrey on the bed. "She's let herself waste away."

"Shut up, Ben," Mal snapped firmly, glaring at him at little. Audrey was a bit surprised to see Ben blink and back off. She wished she had that power over him.

"Hold your hand still for me," Uma directed, holding Audrey's hand at the wrist. She started applying pressure, but Audrey's hand only shook more as her vision swam.

"Open the windows," Evie called and Mal flicked her finger towards the curtains. They snapped open and Audrey groaned, leaning back instinctively to bury her face in the covers. She could feel Ben rolling his eyes even with her eyes shut against the blinding lights.

"Guys, I'm serious, she just needs to-"

"Eat this," Evie directed, picking up the plate and putting it back in Audrey's lap. She forced her to stay sitting up and nodded at Mal. "Draw the curtains halfway and Ben, do shut up."

Ben fumed. The room returned to partial darkness and Audrey carefully took a few bites of food. Everything remained silent. Audrey looked around for further instructions, but Evie only gestured her to keep eating. Uma was still holding her wrist, testing Audrey's shakiness, and Evie held her fingers to Audrey's neck still.

Time passed. Audrey finished her plate and the lights didn't seem as bright. She could now focus on the people around her - Mal was standing with her arms crossed at the doorway and Ben was chewing on his upper lip while he looked at her expectantly. Evie and Uma exchanged a glance.

"How hungry are you still?" Evie asked.

"Very," Audrey murmured and took another drink. Her stomach was pinching something awful.

In a motion, Uma and Evie withdrew from her and Audrey was left sitting by herself. "Low Blood Sugar," Evie announced. "It's the same thing Doug's father deals with. He left last month after the baby was born. I think we might still have the meter to test her, right?"

"Should be in the storehouse," Uma nodded. "Mal, would you-"

Mal snapped her fingers and a zipper-closed black box appeared in her hands. She unzipped it and handed it to Evie. Before Audrey could react, they'd pricked her finger and put a drop of blood on the end of a paper, which she handed back to Mal. Mal scanned it and shook her head. "Low," she announced. "Really, really low."

"How long has this been happening?" Uma asked, turning her back to Ben, who was performing a rather accurate impression of a fish.

"Since Belle was born," Audrey said. "The doctors said it was probably just my body trying to recover after birth."

Mal and Evie both shook their heads at the same time, but it was Evie who spoke up. "They must have just assumed that was what it was," she said. "No, you have blood sugar problems, and from the sound of it, you have ever since you were pregnant. Were you ever tired or snappish at the end of your pregnancy?"

Audrey laughed. "Isn't everyone?" she asked.

"She probably didn't recognize symptoms," Uma muttered to Evie. "It was only after, when she thought she should have gotten better, that it became an issue. Of course, the doctors would have passed it off as after-birth problems since she'd just had her baby. She was probably too weak to do much while her body was trying to figure out what was wrong with itself and that's why Ben has it in his head that she's invalidated herself."

"She needs a bit more sugar in her and then she'll be able to function enough to starting moving," Evie agreed. "It's probably a sure bet that some of her pain comes from lack of movement, but if her body has been trying to get sugar all these years, there's a chance it might have worn down on her nerves and she's experiencing false pain. Stress might also be a factor. Or there might be something else, but it's a bit too soon for us to figure that out. For now, she needs to eat."

"You have orange juice at your house," Uma said.

"I do have orange juice at my house," Evie nodded. "We'll bring it. She'll see an improvement by the end of the day."

"I've been trying to eat bland foods to stop the stomach pains," Audrey frowned. "Will that-"

"Your stomach pains are probably just hunger cramps. Your body wants more food." Uma shrugged. "And this might be a bit of a stretch, but I'd say it probably has something to do with either your kidneys or liver being hurt during pregnancy."

"When all this is over, you should see if a doctor in Auradon can correct the damage," Evie announced. "They'll be able to tell you where the problem originated from."

"Is that it?" Audrey asked. "I've been dealing with this for eight years and it's just… low blood sugar?"

Evie shrugged. "The fact your bones hurt so much could be something else, but yeah. Low blood sugar."

Audrey was silent for several seconds. Then she leaned over and pinched Ben's arm. "Ow!" He jumped back. "How can you pinch so hard? Ow!"

"I told you so!" she snapped. "You thought I was being silly when I told you something was wrong, Mr. All-You-Need-Is-To-Stop-Whining-And-Get-More-Exercise."

"Has she ever passed out spontaneously?" Evie asked, turning her gaze onto Ben now. "It's a good thing she wasn't following your advice. Low blood sugar, which over-exercising and undereating contribute to, can cause seizures and death."

Ben turned bright red. "I was wrong," he agreed. "Okay? I'm sorry."

"You should be," Audrey sneered.

"I said I was!" Ben replied with his nose wrinkling up in response. "Geesh, I was wrong. What more do you want from me?"

"You guys are dysfunctional," Uma rolled her eyes and turned to Audrey. "Here's another diagnosis - Ben thinks he knows it all and that he's way smarter than you but he's usually too nice to make you do anything. You're sick of Ben's crap and the way he's always condescending on you."

"Accurate," Mal nodded behind Uma.

"That's not even!" Ben snapped. "Listen, I made one - two - mistakes and you're all ganging up on me! I was just going off of what the doctors said and what worked with Belle!"

"We're talking about in general, Ben," Audrey rolled her eyes. "If you could have just listened for five minutes… you've got a big brain; you could have figured it out."

"He did the same thing here," Uma shrugged. "Even right after we first captured him. He stayed low for a few days and then once he figured out a few things he became a de facto leader. We appreciated his help, but in a marriage with someone like you… big problem."

"Wait, so now I'm the big problem here?" Ben laughed. "Are we going to talk about her neglecting both Belle and me, never talking, banning me from certain parts of my castle… this is bullcrap!"

"I ain't saying she's innocent!" Uma shouted. She fixed a finger in Ben's face. "I'm just saying you've wronged her. Don't act like you're the saint between the two of you."

"That's enough!" Evie commanded before Ben could fire back. The baby began crying in Belle's arms in the corner at the loud noise. Audrey leaned forward to peer past Ben and make sure Belle was okay while Mal hurried over to take her wailing son back. Audrey got a glimpse of the baby as she held him. He looked like Ben. Hair and skin and everything. Belle hadn't looked too different when she was born. Something pinged in Audrey's heart. Especially when Mal ran her fingertips down the baby's back and glanced back at Audrey worriedly as if she was afraid she'd loathe the small child.

"Let's get her some food," Evie said as everyone began to calm down. Ben got up and took a half step towards Mal, hands out as if he was about to offer her help, but then he glanced back at Audrey and stilled where he was, looking pained. Audrey looked away and he set a hand on her shoulder.

"Is he okay?" He asked Mal in a murmur.

Audrey couldn't see Mal's reaction but imagined it was probably a shrug and a nod. "Just spooked. He's not used to loud noises."

Ah, she and Ben's son had things in common, then.

Ben's hand tightened on her shoulder. "We… need to decide what to do about Maleficent and you need to eat. Do you want to come back to Evie's house… If that's okay…" He glanced over at Evie, who nodded. Audrey nodded and put a hand on top of Ben's before using it as leverage to get to her feet.

Belle put a hand on Mal's forearm again. "Can I hold him again, now?" She asked.

"Let's not hold him while you have to walk down the stairs and outside," Mal replied. "When we get back to Evie's house, then you can."

Audrey closed her eyes as people began to leave the room. Belle stayed attached to Mal's side, standing on her tip-toes to look at the baby. Her baby doll was missing - she must have left it somewhere in favor of a real one. Her little caretaker.

She almost jumped out of her skin when Ben slid her arm around her waist and put his hand on her hip. It was strange to see his hand there after so many years. She'd forgotten how big his hands were.

"Can you make it down the stairs?" Ben whispered in her ear.

Audrey felt the urge to push him away - it'd only be fair, after all his snide remarks and indifference - but leaned her head into his shoulder and let him lead her down towards the staircase.

"Will she be coming to stay with us?" She asked Ben, closing her eyes against the sunlight when they crossed the threshold of the building.

"No," Ben replied. "But she'll probably bring Xander up from time to time… especially when he gets older. I already decided… it won't be good for me to come out to visit her without bringing you with. I'm… not going to give myself excuses to be alone with her. And… as for us… I'm going to try to be better. I didn't realize how bad I was being towards you and with this whole mess…"

"Do you love me?" Audrey asked.

Ben stumbled a little in his pacing. She felt his mouth open near her neck, but he said nothing. She hadn't expected him to. He used to say it all the time whenever she'd asked, but that had been before Mal and before he must have figured out what love should be like. She opened her eyes long enough to catch him glancing ahead to where the rest of the group was, and then shut them again. Part of her wanted to say 'me too,' but that would be admitting a major defeat.

"What's his name?" She asked instead.

"Xavier," Ben announced, louder than anything else he'd said so far. "Xavier James. He's ten months old."

She could feel his entire posture change - the way he straightened up and the strength that entered his frame. She knew the look without opening her eyes. It was the same way he'd been those first few months she'd been pregnant before she'd gotten too sick to keep acting perfect around him and asked to be left alone. It was the same thing he'd done - and still did - whenever Belle was around. From the first time he'd cuddled with her while Audrey rested after delivery to every day since he'd come back and changed things in their home.

She knew him well. Knew the way he thought about things and his strength and kindness. She knew, even now, his composure. The guilt and the thrill of being a new parent, all wrapped together. And despite this, if she was asked the same question she'd offered him "Do you love me?", would she be able to respond "yes"?

* * *

While the ache remained in Audrey's bones, she was astounded by how quickly her world changed as Evie put a bunch of high-sugar foods in front of her and directed her on how much to eat. Had she ever felt this good after eating? How could she have never noticed a difference? The stomach pains - Uma had been right about them only being hunger stabs - eased as Evie forced her to eat more, rather than less. And the foods, which Audrey assumed would set off even worse pains, didn't seem to faze her stomach at all despite how unused she was to them. Orange juice, sausages, and yogurt with granola and fruit mixed in. The yogurt was something Audrey had tried and found not too hard on her stomach, but she'd never dared eat too much.

Ben hovered in the room beside her, though he always made to stand when Mal happened to flit in or out. Belle followed Mal as the purple-haired fairy came and went with Xavier in tow, first to get him dressed for the day and then to go rouse Carlos and Jay before she left for a couple of other tasks.

Ben helped Evie clean things as Audrey finished another glass of orange juice Evie had set in front of her with a stern look. She glanced to the outside and the glass stilled by her lips. It was still bright - her eyes were unused to the outside, after all, but goodness, it was beautiful. And her brain didn't want to gouge her eyes out of her head. "Incredible," She murmured and got to her feet to peer outside. "Your garden is wonderful."

"Thank you," Evie replied, reaching up to put a glass in a cabinet. "Mal uses spells to help me keep it green all year long."

"That's smart," Audrey agreed, though the thought of the daughter of Maleficent performing magic with such ease gave her anxiety. "What else does she do around here?"

"Well, she's the primary leader now," Evie explained.

"Yeah, I was wondering about that," Ben agreed, reaching beside her to put forks away. "I'm surprised Uma let that happen."

"Uma was convinced by Harry," Evie explained with a smile. "And, uh, it kinda happened by the voice of the people. Once things got going, they requested her to be our main leader and protector."

"I thought people were scared of her?" Ben asked, raising his eyebrows. Audrey gave him a sharp look.

"That's part of why," Evie shrugged. "They knew she was powerful enough to keep Auradon away if things went sour. They also assumed she'd have, uh, lingering connections. This was before it went up that she was pregnant."

Ben chewed on his cheek and glanced towards the ground. Audrey watched him, then looked back outside. "Is she in charge of your barrier?"

"Yes," Evie agreed. "She's the overseer. Literally, since she lives at the top of that tall monstrosity. And she does other things… saves food and helps with construction and things like that. When Ben was here, she swore him to an oath that he wouldn't betray us and attack us."

Audrey hummed and put a hand up to the window to peer outside. She bit her tongue as she examined the flowers and then sat down at Evie's bar again. "Can you tell me…" she began, and Evie paused to look over at her. "How do people view Ben around here? After everything?"

Evie hummed and then leaned her elbows onto the countertop. Ben, too, stilled to listen to the response. "Well," she started. "Ben was very popular and loved when he left and you still see a lot of people who adore and miss him. The kids especially - he was popular." Evie threw a smile over her shoulder - a blinding one that would have turned heads in Auradon - but Ben only rolled his eyes at her. "When Mal found out she was pregnant, she was tight-lipped about it and didn't say anything to anyone, but there's of course only too long until people start to notice. Rumors started to fly when she was about six months and Uma called her out on it. Ben was - uh - quickly linked. They'd been close friends before he left and people would usually talk to Ben or me instead of Mal because we were the only ones she'd listen to."

Evie twisted her hands here and exhaled. "A few wondered if Ben had, ah, forced her, but that was put down quickly. No offense to Ben, but Mal could blow him off the face of the earth pretty easily if she wanted. The two common theories that flew were that Ben was just looking to get lucky or, uh, that they'd had an affair going that they'd broken off so Ben could rule Auradon and that he was going to come back one day. It never really hit the public that Ben was married, but I think gradually word spread because no one was surprised when you and Audrey appeared yesterday."

Ben let out a little breath as Audrey nodded along to Evie's words. "Okay," she whispered. "Thank you for that."

The front door opened with the grinding of metal on metal. "Mommy?" Belle called down the hall. "Are you still here?"

"I'm here, baby," Audrey called, planting her hands on the counter and working against the ache in her bones.

Belle appeared in the doorway. Ben smiled at her and Belle momentarily forgot her quest to speak with her mother in favor of giving her dad a quick hug. A breeze floated down the hallway behind her and Audrey became aware of arguing from outside.

"...not interested… I'm really not-"

"...not trying to…"

"...don't need this…"

"Mom, can I go play with the other kids?" Belle asked, dashing around the counter to hug Audrey. "Dad let me yesterday."

"Yes," Audrey agreed, partially distracted by the muffled arguments down the hall. "Please be careful."

Belle snatched the arm of Molly the doll on her way out and the arguments stopped as she re-entered the hallway. Ben stepped forward, glanced down the hall, and shifted a little. Mal, then. Mal must be down there.

Hades appeared from down the hallway. Audrey tensed a little on instinct though she was now familiar with the God. He regarded Ben with newfound disdain. What had happened? Hades had previously been impressed with Ben's leadership skills.

Mal appeared in the hallway and skimmed the room. "Ben," she began, "We need to figure out what to do about my mother." She was balancing Xavier on her hip.

"Yes," Ben agreed, reaching out to brush Xavier's hair carefully. "I don't even know if she'd still be at the palace. I tore down the map in my office, but with your barrier pretty visible, it can't be long before she figures out where you are. She'll come for you."

"She won't be able to get through my barrier," Mal replied. "But I'm not going to go out of the barrier unless I know where she is, otherwise it'll be an ambush."

"Okay," Ben agreed. "We'll have to figure out where she's gone… if she's back at the palace. Maybe I'll have to serve as bait to bring her back."

"No," Mal replied firmly. "That won't be necessary."

A sliver of a smile passed over Ben's face. "Nice to know you care so much," he teased before his face again crumpled with guilt and he glanced at Audrey to gauge her reaction. Mal, too, glanced over, but Audrey didn't feel too fazed by the banter. She appreciated the effort despite the circumstances.

It was strange, but knowing that Ben had cheated on her didn't hurt as bad as the fear that he would cheat that had crushed her in her youth.

"Couldn't you set up a moving barrier?" Evie asked. "One that would protect you as you moved?"

"A shield, maybe," Mal sighed. "Not a barrier. Barriers are fixed around immovable landmarks."

"Would you be able to take on Maleficent?" Audrey asked. "I mean… she's the Mistress of All Evil…"

"I'm more powerful than she is," Mal interrupted. "And she… probably won't try too hard once I find her. We have an odd relationship like that."

The corner of Ben's mouth crooked like he wanted to say something, but he didn't Audrey guessed he was more filled in on Mal's history than she was.

Hades drummed his fingers on the countertop across from Audrey, examining her tersely. When he didn't find what he was looking for, he turned and walked away. Ben exhaled as he left the room and Evie glanced over at him. "You should probably try talking to him again," she muttered. "Update him on the situation."

"It's none of his business," Mal wrinkled her nose. "He doesn't need to know."

Nonetheless, Ben seemed to agree with Evie. He nodded and stretched out his hands towards Xavier in Mal's arms. "Can I take him?" He asked.

Mal passed him over carefully, avoiding touching Ben himself. "Don't take him far, or I'll find you wherever you try to hide," she threatened without much bite in her tone. "He'll probably keep him from raising his voice anyway."

Ben nodded. His head had drifted lower when Mal had come towards him, but he straightened back up without consequence. With a glance towards Audrey, he left, following Hades.

Another baby began to cry upstairs and Evie moved to go retrieve the little one. Seeing as how they were going to be the only people left, Mal began to move towards the exit as well. But Audrey raised her hand. "Mal?" She asked. "Could you - could I talk to you?"

Evie gave Mal an anxious glance as she hurried out. Mal crossed her arms slowly and took a few steps forward. "Are you… sure you want to talk to me?" She asked.

"I just…" Audrey took a breath. "Have questions."

Mal sat down at the edge of the bar, leaving a separating seat in between her and Hades. She leaned one elbow on the countertop. "Yeah?" she asked.

Audrey's tongue felt fat in her mouth. She had things she wanted to say but wasn't sure how to brace the subject. "I just…" she faltered. "What was he like? When he came to you guys?"

Mal looked down. "Broken," she replied. "Very broken. Tired. He just, all the time looked like he didn't have anything to fight for."

Audrey somehow nodded to shake her head while conveying the emotion of agreement. "I understand but at the same time, I don't understand… he came back and he was happy again and yes, it was a struggle for us, but I hadn't seen him that lively in years!"

"He's just the kind of person who needs to have a mission," Mal shrugged. "That's what he asked us for, actually. Begged us to give him a purpose."

"I don't know how to be that," Audrey sighed. "He gets on just fine with Belle, but not with me."

"He's just… active," Mal stammered. Her voice sounded strained with every word. "Once you're feeling better… you'll be able to keep up with him again and things will get better."

Audrey glanced over at Mal. "Do you love him?" she asked and tried to make the question as innocent as possible.

Mal's eyes grew large and panicked. She balled her fists up and leaned away from Audrey with a white face. Audrey tried to keep her face neutral as Mal calmed back down. "I'm… not looking to take him away from you," Mal began softly. "We both made our decisions and I-"

"Is that a yes?" Audrey asked.

Mal swallowed. "Yes, I think so," she agreed. "Do you… do you hate me?"

There was a quiver behind her voice, which was absurd because she was the daughter of Maleficent, afraid of whether or not the daughter of Aurora would hate her. Ridiculous.

Audrey shook her head. "Honestly… not as much as I thought I would hate a person in this situation."

A little burst of laughter burst out of Mal. "You're not as bad as I always imagined you," she said. "You're actually kinda… I mean, I relate to you."

Audrey had to look down to hide a smile. "Well, I think we both could improve our taste in men," she whispered, and Mal began to laugh harder.

Through the window, Audrey glimpsed flaming blue hair. Hades and Ben had wandered around to the back of the house. Hades was now holding Xavier, and they appeared to be chatting slowly, mostly keeping their eyes off each other. "Did Hades ever find his daughter?" Audrey asked aloud.

Mal jerked a little in surprise. "What?" she asked. "Oh, yes, I think so."

Audrey nodded. "I'm glad. he was anxious about it." She turned back to Mal and found the other girl's nose wrinkled up in confusion. "Well, he broke the barrier to come see her. I've been listening to him talk about her in the carriage… he was excited for the chance to reconnect."

"I don't think he wanted to reconnect," Mal shook her head. "See… he wasn't exactly _there_ when she was growing up."

"I know," Audrey agreed. "So, this is what I've heard: her mother was insane, tried manipulating him and was just a control freak in general, and so he left her and she asked him not to contact the girl. And by asked, I mean she threatened him with disfigurement and a couple of other things. Also threatened their daughter. Since he was on the Isle, he was vulnerable, so he decided to let rest, but kept watch over her and tried to help whenever possible by leaving things places… the normal stuff, I guess. But then they left with all the villain kids. So he broke out to come to see her, spend time with her, help her out, I guess. He said he wanted to be part of her life in whatever way she'd let him."

Mal blinked slowly as if the information didn't faze her.

Audrey glanced down at her hands. "I kinda feel like Hades's ex-wife," she admitted. "With Ben. I just… can't blame him for this because I was… horrible to him."

"Oh, believe me," Mal snorted and shook her head. "You are nothing like her."

The back door opened and Ben glanced inside. "Hey," he mumbled. "Um, Mal, Xavier is crying. Hades's hair spooked him and we can't get him to calm down. Can you come to help us?"

Mal stood up. "Be right out," she agreed and set a hand on Audrey's shoulder. "It was nice to talk to you. Thank you."

Audrey, for as frazzled as her brain was and for everything that had happened in the last five hours of wakefulness alone, was drawing lines between the people around her. She turned to watch Mal step out into the sunshine, hold out her arms for Xavier, and take him. Hades didn't look at her, even as the purple-haired fairy studied his face. Ben shifted uncomfortably, glancing between the two. Could it be that-

"What did I miss?" Evie asked as she re-entered the room. "Where's Mal?"


	6. Chapter 6

Xavier hiccuped and Ben's heart melted.

"Buh," Xavier babbled to himself, repeating the single sound over and over. He was sitting beside the couch in Evie's living room, chattering and playing with the little toys Evie had left out. Ben hovered half in the doorway to the living room and half in the hallway, peering down towards the kitchen where Mal and Evie were talking. Audrey stood beside Ben and watched as Xavier slowly lost interest in the toys and then began examining the table legs instead.

"He looks like you," Audrey mumbled beside him.

Ben nodded. He reached for Audrey to put an arm around her shoulders, but she brushed his arm back and stepped into the room for some space. She knelt beside Xavier, who looked up with guarded concern at the appearance of his new playmate. "I wonder what it was like for her when he came and he looked exactly like you and you were gone."

"Well, it sounds like people had already assumed I was the father," Ben recalled, thinking back to how Audrey had asked Evie about people's reactions.

"I wasn't talking about other people. Just her," Audrey specified. She showed Xavier her hand and he carefully held his own up, glancing between their palms as if to ask "What now?" A smile spread across Audrey's face.

Ben considered that. Mal had seemed indifferent and absurdly calm when describing Xavier to him. Not the spitfire she was before, though she was still strong-willed. It could be, he supposed, a result of long-term stress or resignment.

Audrey placed her palm up to Xavier's to show him the size difference and Xavier stared at her with wild confusion. Ben snorted, cleared his throat, and waved. "Xavier," he called. His son's name felt familiar on his tongue as if he'd been saying it all his life. Xavier turned with a little jump and a tiny grin crossed his face when he caught sight of Ben, who was more familiar to him than Audrey was. He waved, rotating his wrist slowly as Ben stepped into the room and sat beside Audrey. Then, he leaned forward until he had fallen on his hands and crawled over to pull himself into a standing position using Ben's arms as a prop.

Audrey didn't look at Ben as she offered Xavier a hand and then guided him into a walking position. She did clear her throat before helping Xavier toddle around in small, easily-manageable circles. "So," she began. "Mal."

Ben flinched. He really, really didn't want to talk about Mal with Audrey.

"Is she Hades's daughter?" Audrey asked.

Ben relaxed again. That was an easily manageable territory. "Yeah," he agreed. "Hades and Maleficent."

"That's insane," Audrey huffed.

"Well, it certainly… yes, it is," Ben agreed.

"This little boy," Audrey began, leading Xavier closer to her until he was able to let go of her finger and grab her shirt sleeve for support, "is the grandson of Beast and Belle and Maleficent and Hades. What a pedigree."

"Do you like him?" Ben asked softly. He'd seen her betrayed expression the first time she'd glimpsed him this morning. No doubt she'd been reeling over their likenesses. Part of him reasoned she'd have every reason to loathe the physical proof of his infidelity, but she seemed rather content with little Xavier.

"He's cute," Audrey hummed with a nod. "He's got your face."

"Well, my features. His face is more his mom's."

"I don't hate him if that's what you're asking. Or her."

Ben stared as Xavier reached for Audrey's hand again. He'd noticed her nails and thought they were cool. "You don't?" Ben asked.

Audrey shook her head. "Mal is… nice. And it hurts knowing what you did with her, but I think you both have made your intentions very clear and-" she paused to wipe at her eyes as tears filled them. "It still hurts a lot, obviously, but that's where I am right now."

Xavier slowly let himself down to the ground and rediscovered his toys with fascination. As he picked up some sort of rattle, Ben reached over and set a hand in Audrey's back. "I'm sorry. I should have… I shouldn't have let my heart get the better of my head."

Audrey stayed silent.

"I want to fix things between us," Ben continued, setting his other hand on Audrey's leg. "Will you let me?"

Audrey moved away from his touch a little, but then sat still as his hand rested on her leg. She blinked at it slowly, as if she couldn't process that it was there, and Audrey wondered if she was going into another one of her phases where she zoned out. But instead, she squeezed his hand and then got to her feet. "Where's Belle?" she asked.

"She's still out playing," Ben reminded her. "We'll have to go find her before lunch."

On the floor, Xavier began to babble happily. He tossed his rattle aside and waved his hands in the air with a large smile. Ben turned to see what Xavier had seen and his entire body relaxed to see Mal leaning against the doorframe.

"I think I saw Belle running towards Uma's sector," Mal informed them both. "We're having lunch with Jay and Carlos at the pavilion today. We can walk over and I can find her if you need."

Ben picked up Xavier, who was still reaching for his mom with a pout becoming increasingly prominent as he extended grabby-hands toward her. Mal sighed and took the baby, letting a little smile show as he grabbed onto her hair and relaxed. "That is if this rascal doesn't need me still."

"I think he's just clingy," Ben chuckled. He set a hand on Xavier's back and then leaned in to boop noses with his son. Xavier turned away, wrinkling up his forehead and then burying his face in Mal's hair. He started babbling incoherently into her hair and then discovered Mal's hair was stuck to his hands. Mal pulled the purple locks out of his reach and then looked up past Ben with concern.

"Do you need an arm?" Mal asked Audrey. Ben looked over his shoulder and leaned out to catch his wife's arm as she swayed a little.

"Just blood rush," Audrey shook her head, though she held onto Ben's arm for a few seconds before she was able to stand by herself again. She gave Xavier a little smile that made the little boy return his face to Mal's hair. Ben pulled a few locks out from in between Xavier's fingers and let his fingertips hover on the strands a moment.

"Soft," he murmured to her and a little color rose in Mal's cheeks. She stepped back and exhaled.

Evie and Doug appeared, all wrapped up in light jackets against the faint breeze that had been blowing all day. Their little girl, Morgan, was cuddled under Doug's arm. Ben, Audrey, and Mal all followed Evie and Doug out of the house and down to the pavilion. There, Uma was serving sandwiches. She handed one to each as they passed and Ben marveled that Mal and Uma could now pass each other without insulting the other.

"We need Belle," Audrey said as she sat down.

"She already came through," Uma assured her. "All the little ones without parents get fed by us. She just followed her friends."

"Where did she go?" Audrey frowned, peering around for any group of giggling children.

"Down by the river," Harry directed her gaze, pointing towards where Ben had disappeared to the day before. "There's a little place you can hike to on the banks… they like to play games down there."

"Will she fall in?" Audrey demanded.

"The older kids keep an eye on them and don't let them get wet unless it's hot," Uma promised. "But we did set up a net downstream in case something - or someone - falls in."

"Dizzy's probably down there," Evie announced. "You remember Dizzy, right Ben?"

"I do remember Dizzy." Ben set a hand on Audrey's shoulder. "She's probably fine. Let's eat and go check on her."

Mal set her plate down beside Evie. She was close to Audrey, but not to Ben. She carefully readjusted Xavier on her hip and then glanced towards her towering building. "I need to go grab some food for him," she mumbled. "All the baby food is in his room."

"I can watch him?" Ben offered, holding out his hands.

"No," Mal declined. "I'll take him up with me. He needs to be changed and you'll have to go get Belle soon and I don't want him being carried around camp." She grew her wings out without any verbal command. Audrey dropped her fork in surprise as Mal walked around them and then took to the skies gently, holding tight to Xavier as she did.

"Wings," Audrey muttered. "She has wings."

"Yes, she does," Ben affirmed, picking up his sandwich.

"How am I supposed to compete with wings?" Audrey muttered under her breath. Ben paused with his sandwich halfway up to his mouth and gave her an odd look.

The ground rumbled. Everyone looked down, then up at the pavilion's roof. Then, the entire earth began shaking. The tables rattled and clanged and food slid off onto the ground.

"Earthquake?" Ben asked.

"Get out from under the pavilion," Evie ordered. She covered her head as she and Doug struggled to stand up. Ben used the table for support and helped Audrey up. Her hands were clasped around her neck and her eyes were squeezed shut.

They got to the edge of the pavement and Ben squinted. Out past the edge of the barrier, a great cloud was arising. Several tons of brown earth was being thrown into the air. A new shock knocked them all to their knees before the barrier turned vivid green.

"It's an attack!" Evie realized.

"Maleficent," Audrey whispered.

Lightning struck the barrier. People inside screamed. The ground continued to shake as if someone was trying to tear the barrier out of the ground. Audrey turned and seized the front of Ben's shirt. "Belle!" She demanded. "We need to find Belle!"

"I got her, I got her," Ben agreed, squeezing her hands. He got to his feet, stumbling as he tried to keep his balance on the rocking ground, and then began running towards the river. It was easier to run than to stand still. Within moments, the pavilion was out of sight. The barrier continued shaking as the sun was completely blocked out by the massive dust cloud surrounding them.

"Belle!" Ben shouted when he got close to the river. "Belle!"

He kept running downstream, hoping to find her there, but the sounds of the attack were beginning to grow louder. Loud blasts that could have come from a cannon were echoing off the barrier and the sharp crack of electricity made Ben's hair stand up on edge.

He suddenly reached the barrier's edge.

The river, which started in the east, flowed out to the west and then to the sea several miles outward. Several different sections were engulfed in the bubble-like barrier, and this was the beginning of the section closest to the road. In fact, he could see the carriage through the trees, out by the road.

A whistling sound caught his attention. Something landed to his right. Had Maleficent managed to break through? But no, it was Mal instead. Devilish horns had appeared on her head and her wings were extended, waiting to take flight at any second. Her hands were outstretched and her fingertips were glowing. her eyes were vivid, vivid green.

She raised her hands and Ben watched the barrier grow thick, almost like the green glass of a bottle. The shaking subsided. The booms seemed more distant now. He took a step closer - she still hadn't seen him yet.

Who had given her the right to be so beautiful? Even amid chaos, when she was fully prepared to murder for her people, she was immaculate. Ben watched her purple hair drift around her face as if it was obeying a gravity other than earth's. She hovered on the outskirts of the barrier, mostly turned away from him, and slowly let her hands down. Ben followed her gaze to see what she was searching for.

Outside, the dust began to settle as the attacker realized their attempts were futile. Ben balled his fists up as he kept his gaze focused on the thinning cloud. The outlines of trees became visible, and then the ground began to gradually appear.

In the middle of the path, black robes became visible. Ben almost jumped out of his skin when he recognized the vicious, fanged snarl of Mal's mother, Maleficent.

The wicked witch turned with a snap of her robes and vanished almost immediately after she became visible, but there was no mistaking who had come and gone.

"Maleficent," Ben said from upstream. Mal's head swiveled around to stare at him. Her wings and horns were retreating into her head. "That didn't take long. Only three days even without the maps from the palace."

"She saw me." Mal chewed her lip. "Did she see you? Does she know you're here?"

"I don't know," Ben admitted. "I only glimpsed her on the trail."

"I don't know if she'll come back now that she knows I'm still with the VK's," Mal muttered. She nodded towards the pavilion. "Come on, I need to talk to Evie."

"I need to find Belle," Ben protested and glanced around to affirm there were no wayward children around. "Audrey's panicking without her. Where do the kids usually play?"

"Upstream." Mal's gaze hit the ground. "In, um, our place. They like to crowd around the water and they call it 'the enchanted lake'."

"Oh," Ben sighed and nodded. "Okay."

They walked back towards the pavilion. Ben would drift closer to Mal and then remind himself to put more space between them, again and again. She was like a magnet, pulling him into her.

At the pavilion, everyone had once again crowded underneath the roof and around the tables. Audrey was sitting down, but when she saw him, she got back up. "Did you find her?" she called, walking out to meet them both.

"Belle should be upstream with the other children," Mal told Audrey. She skimmed the people around the pavilion with pinched lips. "Where's Evie?"

"I think she went to go find the children too," Audrey explained, wringing her hands. "She walked that way." Audrey pointed towards the north and Mal sighed.

"Great," Ben decided. "That's exactly where we need to go for Belle, supposedly. Let's walk up and meet her."

Ben looped his arm through Audrey's to support her as the three began their walk away from the pavilion. Mal remained stone-faced, distracted, and on-guard as Ben explained to Audrey what he'd seen.

"Maleficent discovered us pretty quickly, even without the maps in my office," he thought aloud. "I hope she hasn't hurt too much of Auradon. With me gone, things will be in disarray."

"It's only been three days," Audrey whispered. "We'll be back soon. We can sort out this thing with Maleficent and figure out something with our family."

Ben ducked underneath a sign hanging from two trees and saw that the path Mal had led them on led right to 'the Enchanted Lake'. The area had been cleared of most of the underbrush that had hidden it from the settlement and it was now a wide-open grassy area. A large cart's handle - similar to the ones they'd used to travel - was put on a stone pillar beside the path's opening and several smaller carts for the children to use were scattered around.

Up ahead, Evie was bent down and talking to some shaking children. Others wandered around and picked up fallen debris. Ben and Audrey ducked under the trees, following Mal as she walked over and pulled Evie away from the kids. It felt odd to be with Audrey here, in this place.

"Where's Belle?" He muttered under his breath, looking around.

Audrey pointed ahead to the riverbank wordlessly and Ben saw Belle picking up a yarn doll from the ground and offering it to its owner, with her medical doll underneath one arm. The motion was so simple and sweet that Ben forgot to go grab her for a moment. He simply watched as Belle sat down on the ground with her legs stretched out and tied a little piece of cloth around the yarn doll's arm as if it were a bandage and then look back down to examine her own doll's marks.

Audrey leaned her head on Ben's arm. It had been years since she'd done that, it felt like.

He was so caught up in watching Belle examine a scratch on her doll's arm that he missed the sliding, griding sound behind him. With a crash, the cart, which had been knocked off balance in the attack, slid off of its dock and began to wheel backward. The handle thumped across the ground as it rushed right for the river - right towards Belle.

Someone shouted a warning.

It hit her full on and her head was knocked back from the base of the cart slamming against her ear. Her leg was caught in the wheel and the cart flipped on top of her. Audrey let out a shriek of horror. Ben started moving, but the handle of the cart had been caught by the current. With the wooden planks grinding down on the pebbles, it was pulled into the river, which was running much faster than it should have been due to the earth shaking. Belle was pulled in after it and her head promptly disappeared underneath the waves.

He reached the banks, fell to his knees, and stuck his hands in to grab the cart's large wheel. With a mighty heave, he began to pull it back out. His arms burned. the water tugged back and tried to pull him in, but he dug in his feet and kept his grip. Belle still hadn't resurfaced. She could swim, but probably not in this fast water and not with the cart holding her captive. With a yell, he yanked back and the entire cart began to be pulled up onto the shore. Ben kept going until both wheels and handle were on the ground and then realized with horror that nothing was underneath the cart.

"Where is she?" the littler kids howled in horror. "Where's Belle?"

Audrey collapsed beside him. Her hands searched in the dirt as she stared at the water for any trace of Belle. Then her arm shot out to point downstream. "There!" she shouted. Ben caught a glimpse of brown hair and a pink shirt and jumped to his feet. As he did, a blur of purple passed him by.

"Mal!" Evie shouted.

Ben caught up to her as she stood on the bank. Since the river was winding, she'd been able to run past a bend and was now watching as Belle's body approached her. She was splashing a little against the fast current, so she must be awake.

"You can't swim!" Ben gasped as he approached. "Mal, let me-"

Mal stretched out her arm and the river stopped in its tracks. It split apart, leaving a dry riverbed, and Belle dropped onto dry soil in the center of it. Mal wasted no time in jumping in and picking up Belle before rushing back to the bank and putting her into Ben's arms. The river resumed its course as Mal climbed back onto solid ground.

Ben squeezed Belle's body. She was cold and shivering. She gasped for breath and then began to throw up water. He helped turn her so she could throw up into the river, but she began to thrash against his aid. Gargled screams escaped her mouth amidst the streams of swallowed water.

"What's wrong with her?" Ben demanded, squeezing her arms in a panic as he looked up at Mal for answers. "What can we do?"

"Her leg!" Audrey cried as she came upon the pair. Ben looked down and his hands began to shake when he saw how Belle's pant leg was drenched in blood. She was cut.

Belle stopped throwing up and began to sob and scream. "Owie!" she cried. "Owie!"

Ben ran his hands through her drenched hair. "Hey, hey, we've got you," she tried.

Belle reached out blindly. "Mommy!" she called. "Mommy, mommy!"

"Let Audrey have her, Ben," Mal ordered, moving to support Belle's head as Audrey sat down and began reaching for her.

"Audrey can't - she's not strong enough to-"

"Let me have my daughter, Ben," Audrey snapped. Her voice was so firm and powerful that Ben immediately began to calm down. Audrey took Belle from him and squeezed Belle's arms as Belle began to babble in pain.

"Mommy, it hurts! My leg, my leg!"

"Hush," Mal commanded, taking the side of Belle's face. "Listen to me, Belle. I need you to look at me. Look at me right now."

"It hurts!" Belle continued to cry. Her eyes were squeezed shut against the pain.

Mal's pupils lit up. "Belle!" she called more urgently, and Belle forced one of her eyes open. "Listen to me, Belle. What hurts?"

"My leg! My leg!"

Mal reached for Belle's ankle and Belle let loose an ear-splitting scream.

"Can you numb her?" Audrey begged.

Mal took Belle's face again. "Listen to me, Belle. What color are my eyes?"

"My leg… my leg…"

"Belle!"

Belle forced her eyes to open just barely and her entire body relaxed suddenly. Mal breathed a little sigh of relief and maintained her gaze as Belle fell silent. "What color are my eyes, Belle? Can you tell me?"

"Green," Belle murmured in a tiny whisper.

"Good girl," Mal nodded. "I'm going to move your leg now so I can help you. We're going to do it fast and it'll probably hurt, but we need you to be brave while Mom is holding you."

Audrey glanced at Ben and then squeezed Belle tighter, rubbing her arms to keep her warm. Belle gave a small, dreamy nod. She was under some sort oh hypnosis charm.

Mal took Belle's leg and quickly straightened it out through touch while maintaining Belle's gaze. Belle grimaced in discomfort, but there was no more screaming. That was good because Ben thought he might cry if he heard her yell out in pain again. Once her leg was straight, Mal was able to scoot up her wet and bloody pant leg. She then broke her eye contact with Belle for seconds at a time to glance down at the wound.

Ben almost had to turn away to throw up himself.

Something - her bone - was sticking up through her lower leg in a horrible break that had punctured her skin. It looked almost like a PVC pipe except it was bone and bloody and made Ben think he might faint. Mal's fingertips grazed over it almost carelessly and she nodded and kept Belle's gaze off of her own ruined leg.

"Its a bit bad," she told her. "But we're going to get you help, okay?"

"I hurt," Belle whispered back.

"I bet," Mal agreed. "But you're being very brave. Now we're going to fix it so it won't hurt as bad. I'm going to do it myself to make sure it gets all better. I'll be your doctor - you like doctors, don't you?"

"I like doctors," Belle agreed.

"Good," Mal whispered. "I'm going to use a doctor trick now. I want you to count backward with me, and when you wake up, you'll be all better. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Three…"

"Three."

"Two…"

"Two."

"One."

Belle never responded because she went right to sleep with her cheek nuzzled against Audrey's shoulder. Audrey let out a breath.

Mal got to her feet and held out her arms. "I can hurry and set the break," she said. "It would probably be best that you don't see it, though. I'm going to have to open it more."

Ben set his hands on Audrey's shoulders. She seemed remarkably calm, though tears were streaming down her cheeks. "Let her," he whispered. "She's done this before."

Audrey nodded and slowly let Mal take Belle out of her arms. Mal's wings were appearing as she secured Belle's arms atop Belle's torso and carefully supported her ankle and leg with her arm. Then, with a swoosh of air, Mal was gone, heading towards the large building where she lived.

Audrey began to cry in earnest now. Ben was in shock as he slumped beside her. She turned and curled up into his chest and he dropped his head onto her shoulder in complete, numbing disbelief. Upriver, the cart was being hauled onto safer ground. One of Belle's new friends had found her doll where it had been dropped before the cart went into the water.

She'd almost drowned. Her head had been under the water probably for two minutes. He'd almost lost his daughter.

Ben wasn't used to feeling so powerless and vulnerable all the time.


	7. Chapter 7

Two hours after Mal had taken Belle, he and Audrey were hiding in Audrey’s room, waiting for more news. Ben wasn’t sure how they’d gotten there - only that he’d come back to himself with Audrey asleep on his chest. They were lying width-wise on top of her covers with shoes on and tear tracks down their faces. 

He focused on the light moving outside and listened carefully for any trace of sound around them besides Audrey’s quiet breathing. Nothing. 

Audrey stirred after a long while, opened her eyes, rolled her chin to lay on her hand on top of Ben’s chest, and blinked down at him in confusion. “You’re here?” She muttered. 

Ben raised an eyebrow. “Problem?” he whispered.

Audrey’s face fell as she apparently began to remember what had happened and sat up, rubbing her cheeks. “Where’s Belle?” She asked. “Has Mal come back yet?”

“No,” Ben shook his head. “Nothing yet.”

Audrey nodded and turned away. She sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed her face, trying to get the stiffness and the sleep to leave her. Ben watched her, almost numb, until she moved her hand and set it on top of his on the bed. Then, he had the urge to move away but sat up instead. 

“She’ll be alright,” Ben muttered under his breath. “Mal… she has lots of experience.”

Audrey exhaled and nodded. “I trust her,” she agreed. “I’m just… worried. I mean, you never know what’s going to happen. I want her to be okay.”

Ben nodded. Audrey took her hand away with a breath and so he patted her knee with his hand. She chuckled and glanced up at him before shaking her head. “It’s been a long time since we woke up like this,” she mumbled.

Ben’s mood soured even further. He gave a one-shoulder shrug and got to his feet. 

“Ben,” Audrey stopped him and then slowly got to her feet. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?” Ben repeated. 

“I know I was distant. I know I wasn’t there. I know you were unhappy.” It was hard to keep her gaze up. She kept looking at her feet. “I… I do miss us. The way we were before.”

“I’m sorry too,” Ben said, though the words felt hollow on his tongue. “Maybe we can get back to that stage again.”

But Audrey remained silent and didn’t offer up any words of confidence. If anything, she looked like more life was being drained out of her. 

A knock came from the door. Ben reached for the handle and swung the door open. Mal was behind it with curly horns still poking out from her hair. Audrey gasped and stepped in front of Ben. “You’re here!” She said. “Is she alright?”

“She’s in her room now, but asleep still. the sleeping spell I used should probably wear off soon,” Mal explained, taking Audrey’s arms to steady her. “You can go sit with her. I’ve wrapped her leg up because it’s probably not good for her or-” her eyes flit to Ben. “-Ben to see it.”

“Ouch.” Ben wrinkled his nose. 

“No, she’s right,” Audrey rolled her eyes. “You probably don’t remember, but you went into shock down by the river.”

Ben’s face turned red. “Oh,” he muttered. 

Mal rolled her eyes, but there was mirth in her eyes. “In his defense, no parent should have to see their children’s bones exposed. Anyways, she, uh, I numbed her. She won’t feel any pain. I set the break and she should be fine. But you’ll need a proper doctor to look at her. She may need extra help to walk normally again.”

Audrey let out a breath and nodded. She stepped past Mal and began heading down the stairs. As she walked away, Ben put a little extra space between him and Mal. “Thank you,” he muttered. “For helping her.”

“She’s a sweet girl,” Mal shrugged. “I hope she still likes doctors after all of this.” She exhaled and turned to head up the stairs. “I left Xavier when Maleficent struck. He’s been alone for too long now. He’s probably fine, but I need to go check on him.”

“Okay,” Ben agreed. 

Mal paused with her hand on the barrier. “Ben… I’ll be leaving soon. Today, probably. Now that I know where my mother is, it’ll be easier to take her down.”

“Just tell me when and I’ll find a sword and-”

“No, I’m going to leave you here,” Mal shook her head. “I can’t spare the extra energy to protect us both. You’re in charge of Xavier.”

“Are you-”

“I’m sure.”

Ben grit his teeth. “I can go out with you, you know.”

“I know,” Mal agreed. “But I need you to stay here. Really, Ben, I do. And I need you to understand that.”

Ben exhaled. “Okay.”

Mal nodded and headed upstairs. Ben left the room and shut the door behind him. He wandered down the stairs and looked up. He could see Mal’s arm on the next stairway up as she headed up, but then she was gone. He sighed and headed downstairs. 

The next bedroom down’s door was open. He could see Audrey’s legs as she sat on the edge of the bed. He walked towards the doorway and opened the door wider to slip in. Audrey didn’t look up at him as she ran her fingertips through Belle’s mangled, ratty hair and traced the cuts on her face. Belle was pale with dark lips and shallow breathing. She looked like how Ben might have imagined the original Sleeping Beauty. 

“Ben, find me a comb in the bathroom, please?” Audrey murmured. She stood and moved so that she could lift Belle’s head onto her lap. Ben glanced towards the attached bathroom in the room and then peered inside. There was a comb on the table that he grabbed and brought back to Audrey. Audrey took it carefully and began to pick at the ends of Belle’s hair, trying not to pull or rip her hair. Ben sat down on the bed beside their little girl and found Belle’s chilled hand atop the covers. 

“Where’s her doll?” Audrey asked. 

“I saw one of the kids grab it. They’ll probably keep it for her.”

“We should go grab it,” Audrey murmured. 

“We will,” Ben agreed. “I can go out and grab it later.”

Audrey hummed and continued picking at Belle’s hair. It occurred to Ben that Audrey had always - always - done Belle’s hair and he didn’t honestly know how to do that much with it. Even when the nannies had been in charge of her, Belle had gone into her mom’s room every day to get ready. It was their thing. 

About twenty minutes passed before a shadow appeared in the door. Ben and Audrey both looked up. It was Mal, holding a sleeping Xavier to her shoulder. “Can I leave him here?” She asked Ben. 

Ben nodded and held out his hands. “I can take him,” he whispered. Mal stepped inside and placed the baby into Ben’s arms. 

“I’ll be back,” she whispered. 

“Be safe,” he whispered. She nodded and left. 

“Where is she going?” Audrey asked when Mal was far enough away. 

“Her mother,” Ben replied and Audrey took a little breath. 

She finished with Belle’s hair and set the comb aside before stretching her hands out towards Ben. “Can I have him?” she asked. 

Ben blinked. “Do you want him?” he asked. 

Audrey patted a spot on her lap beside Belle’s head. I want to compare them,” she admitted. “Belle doesn’t look as much like you as he does.”

Ben tilted his head at Audrey and then slowly laid Xavier beside her. He doubted Audrey could safely lift him. Xavier gave a little sigh as he settled into a fold between Audrey’s leg and Belle’s head and his fist settled beside Audrey’s thigh. Audrey gave a little hum and combed his hair down with her hair before sighing. “He’s precious,” she whispered. 

“You think so?” Ben asked. 

Audrey nodded and leaned back towards the headboard. She continued running her fingertips down both children’s heads, one at a time and going still whenever either stirred. Ben watched without a reaction for what felt like a long, long time. 

Audrey’s head rested on Belle’s head. “She’ll want her doll when she gets up,” she said and Ben nodded in agreement. “I know you said you’d do it later, but will you go find it now? Before she wakes up?”

Ben nodded once and got to his feet. He paused and then leaned over the bed to kiss Belle’s forehead, then Xavier’s, and then Audrey’s cheek. Audrey didn’t say anything as she continued brushing down the two kids’ hair. He left, shutting the door behind him. 

The doll had been picked up at the river where the accident had happened, that much he knew. Kids were once again running around in the clearing and when they saw him, the began to maul him about Belle.

“Is she gonna be okay?”

“Is her leg broken?”

“Where’s Belle?”

“Belle’s going to be fine,” he assured them. “But I need to find her doll. Where is it?”

The kids scrambled to the heap of toys and began to pull thins away to see if they could recover it, but Molly the doll wasn’t anywhere to be found. One of the older kids sat down to think. “Um…” she said. “Barley took the doll when it fell, but I could have sworn she put it into the pile. Maybe she picked it up afterward and took it to her house to keep safe. The only other place it could be is with some of the other kids who went off on an adventure that way.” She pointed downriver, back towards the place where Ben had gone looking for Belle earlier that day.

Ben sighed. He remembered Barley but didn’t know where she lived. Maybe it would be easier to go find the other kids first? He thanked the kids and began to head downstream, pausing every so often to see if he could hear whispers. The river once again began to take him closer to the barrier.

He happened past the trail that led to where his empty carriage still waited and squinted at it. It still looked undisturbed. He hoped none of the little ones knew it was there - it wouldn’t be good for them to be outside of the barrier at the moment.

Ben crossed the path, tripped over a rock and stumbled before he spotted something pink up ahead. It made him pause - hadn’t Belle’s doll been wearing a pink dress when they’d left the palace?

A few steps closer and the familiar plastic face came into view. It was laid against a rock as if standing and looked like it had been abandoned. Strange. The Isle kids rarely abandoned anything - they were all paranoid with the idea of things being stolen or taken away from them if they weren’t in protected spots. Even stranger was that the area around the doll was undisturbed. No tiny stick teepees for the kid’s adventures or heaps of leaves to serve as pretend food. It was as if the doll had been dropped and left. 

And strangest of all, it was three feet behind the barrier.

“ _ Don’t go out,”  _ a voice commanded him that sounded strangely like Mal’s. “ _ Don’t do it.” _

But the doll was right there, almost within arms reach, and he had to make sure he knew where the other kids had gone. 

_ “It could be a trap.” _

Or it could have been a trap. A trap that had already worked. Ben stepped closer to the barrier and looked all around. Everything was calm and undisturbed. If he were to grab the doll, jump back inside, and rush to tell Evie, everything would be fine. 

“ _ Leave it there. It’s a doll.” _

Ben pushed a hand through the barrier. He had long arms but still could only reach about halfway. With a deep breath, he poked his head out and reached. 

His ears were filled with sweet… music. How hadn’t he heard it before? It was beautiful and alluring and made his entire body feel numb and sweet. 

“Come with me, child,” someone beckoned him from the trees. 

Ben straightened up and left the barrier behind. The person gave a hum of approval. “Touch the doll,” they encouraged. “Touch it, I say.”

Ben looked down. The doll had transformed - it wasn’t Belle’s prized medical practitioner's equipment but a long and curved sword. When had that happened? He picked it up. 

A crooked finger appeared, beckoning him onwards. Ben walked across the clearing towards the trees. Smoke began to billow out of the trees as he neared them. A shadow emerged - someone with curved horns and a thin nose and pink mouth. Cold fingers reached forward and curled around his chin. “Tell me, child, what color are my eyes?”

That was a spell. Hadn’t someone used that spell today? He couldn’t remember who or what for. 

“Green,” he answered, and felt his eyes roll into the back of his head.

* * *

“A dream is a wish your heart makes,” Audrey sang softly, alternating between brushing Belle’s hair off her face and brushing down the peach fuzz on Ben’s son’s head. “When you’re fast asleep.”

Ben had been gone for a while now and she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t curious where he’d gone. Mal was gone, not that it would matter too much if they were talking alone. All the damage had been done. 

“In dreams, you will lose your heartache. Whatever you wish for, you keep.” Belle stirred underneath her mom’s touch and Audrey sent another frown to the door. Where was Ben?

“Mom?” Belle asked, blinking up at Audrey’s tanned hand. 

Audrey leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Hello sweetheart,” she whispered. “Are you feeling better?”

Belle nodded and turned her head. She smiled when she saw Xavier and leaned her head against his leg before she sat up. She moved the covers aside and found her bandaged leg underneath the sheets, which she ran her finger down. “Is it broken?” she asked. 

“Yes,” Audrey sighed with her stomach twisting. “We’re going to take you back to Auradon to get you checked out just as soon as Maleficent is gone.”

“Did Mal fix me?” Belle asked. 

“She did,” Audrey couldn’t stop a smile. “But we want to still get you checked out. You might need some extra help to learn to walk, just like I’ll need some help to start not being sick again.”

“We can get better together,” Belle nodded and fell back into Audrey’s side, snuggling up against her torso. Audrey’s ribs ached, but she only squeezed Belle tighter and kissed her head. 

“That’s a good idea,” Audrey whispered. “I want to spend lots of time with my little doctor.”

Belle patted her hand. “I can take care of Xavier and me and you. And maybe Dad, if he gets hurt.”

Audrey chuckled. “Dad has some things he needs to figure out, so it might just be you and me sometimes, baby.”

Belle went a little quiet and then tilted her head into Audrey’s side. “Mom, how come we all have different rooms at home?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Evie shares with her husband and so does Uma and all my friend’s parents,” Belle explained. “At first I thought it was weird, but they all think I’m weird because you don’t share with Dad.”

Audrey chewed on her cheek. “Yeah, dad and I are a little different,” she agreed. “We’re not like a ‘real’ married couple, I guess.”

“You’re fake married.”

Audrey laughed. “I guess.”

Belle nodded. “That makes sense.”

Audrey kissed Belle’s hair again. Her little body felt warm against hers. She didn’t want to let go. 

The door opened. Evie appeared, holding Belle’s doll in one hand. “Oh, hey,” She smiled. “Sorry, I didn’t want to wake Belle by knocking. The kids told me Ben was looking for this? Where is he?”

“I don’t know,” Audrey frowned. “He’s been gone for a while.”

Evie looked surprised. “I’ll go find him,” she decided. “It’s not like him to wander off.” She gave the doll to Belle and tucked the covers up underneath her shoulders. With a kiss to the head, she was gone again. 

Audrey laid a hand on Xavier’s head. If Mal had returned, she would have come to check on the baby. Unless she’d found Ben en-route, then she might have stopped to ask where he was. But no one besides Evie had stopped in and that meant Mal was probably out looking for her mom still. Could Ben have gone after her? If he had, he would be in a world of trouble for leaving their son with Audrey and then not bringing back Belle’s doll, but that seemed so unlike him. 

He was probably still just out looking. He’d hopefully be back soon.


	8. Chapter 8

Swish, swish, swish. The rough edges of the leaves tried to catch onto her pants, but couldn't get a good grip on the leather. Mal did wish they'd be a bit quieter, though.

She could see the remnants of someone using magic in the area as she wandered through, but it was all in traces and hard to track. A little bit of something caught on a tree here and there and there… or stuck on a rock here or there or there.

It hadn't been very long and she didn't expect to have found her mother after scarcely a half-hour of searching, but she did need to keep in mind that the longer she spent looking, the higher the chance of her getting jumped was. And she did have a limit of sorts - she had to be back to take care of Xavier eventually.

She jumped over a log and finally caught a glimpse of something physical in the earth. Faint lines of someone dragging fabric behind them. Her mother had been here then. But only for a few seconds before becoming smoke again. it looked like she'd been popping around the barrier, looking for some way in. That was the third she'd found just by making her way around the barrier.

Someone shouted inside the barrier and nearly scared her out of her wits, but nothing outside was disturbed as of yet. She decided to keep heading on. She was almost to the entrance and that was the last place they'd seen Maleficent and probably both the most likely and least likely places to find her, depending on Maleficent's mood. She'd either be dramatic and pop out of nowhere or she'd be cautious and refuse to make a move. Given the state of their relationship, with Maleficent being terrified out of her mind, Mal assumed it would be the latter.

She came upon the path and hesitated only a moment before stepping out into view. Everything was disturbed here, in the area Maleficent had blown her dust cloud into. Maleficent must have thought that she was still strong enough to penetrate Mal's magic, even a little, and had given it her all. She'd barely shaken the foundations.

Ben's carriage still stood on the side of the road. Mal wandered over and dusted off part of the front to reveal the Auradon crest. She remembered it well from the night she'd stopped Ben's carriage in the road. As she studied it, she felt something shift in the air around her but refused to move. Her mother was here then? And sneaking up on her… odd of her to take the quiet route. She'd assumed Maleficent would draw near and try to call out to her - convince her to join her side one last time. But no, apparently she'd decided her only daughter was uncontrollable and far too much of a liability. And since Maleficent wasn't powerful, fast, or smart enough to kill Mal head-on, she had to resort to sneaking up.

A pebble rattled across the earth. Odd - why wouldn't Maleficent use her smoke attack? She must have assumed Mal was looking for traces of magic and would immediately sense it. She felt the waver of a sword being readied, waited, and then ducked down at the same second the metal blade would have slashed through her head. She came back up, summoning her powers about her, and stopped in shock.

"Ben?" she asked.

Ben attempted to drive the sword through her chest and Mal stumbled back into the wheel of the carriage. "Ben?" She called. "What's going on? What's gotten into you?"

He kept coming, and his attacks weren't clumsy either. At some point, someone had trained the King of Auradon in sword-fighting, because he was far too talented to be an amateur. She ducked around the wheel, rolled underneath the carriage, and jumped up on the other side before throwing up a barrier around herself. It was invisible, not nearly as powerful as the monstrosity that was keeping everyone safe, but still enough to protect herself. She expected Ben to run right into it - he was human, and had no way of knowing what she'd done - but he straightened and ceased attacking immediately. His face was withdrawn and blank.

Two options; either this wasn't the real Ben, or he was spelled. There was no other way he would have known she'd used a spell. And while she knew she'd left Ben with Xavier in the bubble not even an hour ago, she doubted Maleficent would have thought to… _torture_ her like this. Playing with her mind with this man - the king who'd fallen for her and loved her - when Maleficent had no way of knowing what had happened. No, it was more likely that Maleficent had found him. He must have come out of the barrier. Had he been looking for her? After she'd told him no?

"Ben," she called, backing up even more as Ben remained stone-faced. Something twinged in her chest. It wasn't as if he looked _horrible_ when he was focused on nothing and looking as if every emotion had abandoned him, but it was a different picture from the passionate person she usually knew. "Can you hear me?"

He didn't react at all. His eyes followed her hands as if he suspected she might try and attack him. She tried to keep them from shaking. Maleficent could be using Ben as her eyes and she couldn't let her mom see how much this was hurting.

"Isn't he pretty?" Someone crooned behind her. Mal was so focused on Ben that she jumped when she realized Maleficent had appeared behind her. She kept her shield up as she rotated her body around to see them both at the same time. Ben didn't move. Mal waved her hand to him.

"Is he real?" She asked.

"Kill him and find out," Maleficent challenged with the widest smile Mal had ever seen on anyone.

Mal didn't move. She readied her shield and squinted at her mother. "That's treason," she announced blandly.

Maleficent nodded. "King of Auradon. Better hope he's not the real one."

Ah. So that was the idea. Have Auradon declare war on the villains.

"I could just put a shield around him," Mal snarled. "If I take you out, his spell will be broken."

Maleficent wavered a little. There it was - the fear Mal had been reeling over for the last three years. Maleficent had an ace - she had the King of Auradon, for heaven's sakes (And Mal's lover, though her mom didn't need to know that) - she just had to play it right or Mal could steal him back and Maleficent would have to withdraw or lose.

Mal lit a hand up with her signature green flames and extended it towards Ben as a silent challenge to her mother. If they ended up having a battle over Ben's mind, Mal would win. She studied Maleficent's reaction. Her mother didn't move. it was as if she was waiting for something to happen.

Ben moved behind her and her head snapped around to watch as his knees hit the ground. He took his sword, put it at an angle, and held the blade flush to his neck. Mal's blood went cold. One half-inch more and he'd be bleeding out. Ben was holding his breath so the exhale wouldn't cut his neck open.

"Take down your barrier, Mal, and the king lives," Maleficent called.

Mal's eyes filled with stubborn tears. She'd never been this emotional before - why now? "What does it matter?" She demanded. "If I take down the barrier, you'll take the villain kids. if he dies, Auradon comes after us. Either way, you're dooming us."

"Not that barrier," Maleficent crooned. "Your barrier. Come, Mal, join me and I'll break his spell and let him walk away. I swear it."

"I'm not interested in being under your rule," Mal sneered. "I spent sixteen years and I learned, mom. You're afraid of me anyways."

"Mal, baby, I was never afraid of you," Maleficent lied and Mal raised an eyebrow at the telling shake in her voice. "I was so, so proud. And I'll be proud again… just come back to me."

"No," Ben said suddenly from behind them both. Maleficent had let his spell lift while she struggled to stay still in Mal's presence. His head was wrenched back as Maleficent re-asserted her control of his body, and then the edge of the blade drew a line of blood from his neck.

"Stop!" Mal shouted when she saw the blood. What could she do? Even if she put a barrier up around him, he'd still be under her control. He had done something - obeyed a command of some sort - and not even severing the magic would undo the spell right away. She could try and battle for Ben's mind but there was no chance Maleficent wouldn't slit Ben's throat before she could stop him and no guarantee she wouldn't damage his mind trying.

"What do you want?" she demanded. "On your side, what do you want me to do?"

"Come rule with me," Maleficent crooned. "Nothing more. He'll walk free."

Mal grit her teeth. An idea popped into her head. She narrowed her eyes at her mother, then sent a cutting blast of hardened flames at her. Maleficent barely managed to get out of the way - leaving a charred tree behind her as she tripped over her robes and toppled down. Ben let out a strangled gasp behind her - with Maleficent's focus gone, he could bring the sword down from his neck.

He jumped to his feet. Blood was dripping down his collarbone in a little river that made Mal so angry she could feel heat behind her eyes. She kept sending near-solid fire blasts toward her mother as Maleficent jumped out of her way. The older woman's face was white with fear. Ben took the sword he was holding and jumped to Mal's aide, even though there wasn't a lot he could do while she was hurling fire back and forth. He did stamp out a flame near his foot and it was then that Mal was reminded she needed to be careful to not set the forest on fire as she attacked.

Maleficent vanished into a few wisps of smoke. Mal stopped her attacks and glared all around her, waiting for her to reappear. The forest had gone quiet again.

"Where'd she go?" Ben whispered after several long seconds of nothing.

"I don't know," Mal whispered. She might have scared her off, though she hoped that wasn't the case. She stopped looking around to skim Ben. He looked unharmed except for that tiny cut on his neck. He was holding the sword in his right hand and kept fixing the handle as if the sword wasn't weighted properly for his arm. "I'm going to kill her, and then I might kill you too."

"I'm sorry," Ben muttered under his breath. "I saw Belle's doll behind the barrier. I was trying to get it."

The doll. Mal cursed mentally. That must be the object Ben had touched. Fabulous. At least it wasn't around now. Maleficent's control over Ben would be weaker without it. She sneered and turned to press her fingertips to her head. "Hey," Ben began and reached out to set a hand on her shoulder. His fingers knocked into her barrier and there was a zap that made Mal gasp. When the light smoke cleared, Ben was shaking his hand. "Oh," he said. "You have a barrier."

"Get under here," Mal demanded and pulled him in, making the space wide enough for both of them. "Goodness gracious. Okay, this space will follow me around, so as long as you stay close to me, we should be fine."

"Fine?" Ben repeated, and his voice sounded a little weird. Mal wrinkled her nose up at him and then a green fog crept into Ben's eyes. Mal took a step back. How? Maleficent wasn't around and the doll was…

She looked down at the sword. It had a black handle and looked new and clean. There wasn't anything like that around here.

Oh. She'd screwed up.

Ben attacked, stabbing straight for her heart. Mal jumped back and her foot caught on a rock. Before she could wrench it out, he stomped on it. He swung for her head and Mal put up her arm to stop it, letting a metallic-like protective surface cover her sleeve before Ben's sword clanged off.

"Ben!" She shouted. He was still inside the barrier - shouldn't Maleficent's hold be weaker? "Ben, it's Mal. Remember me?"

"I remember you," Ben agreed, but every word echoed with Maleficent's tone. "Don't you remember me, Mal? Didn't you remember me when you left me locked up on that island?"

It was Mal's fervent wish to never hear Ben impersonate her mother - ever.

Mal jabbed Ben in the knee with her elbow. He fell and she rolled on top to try and pin him down. She kept a particular focus on his sword hand as he tried to inch the blade down onto her head. She just had to wrestle the cursed blade away and…

Ben kneed her in the stomach. It didn't have as much effect as it would have if she hadn't been clenching her abs as tight as possible, but it still left her a little breathless and caused her to lose focus. Ben used the distraction to flip her. Now she was on the ground with a hard rock pressed into her spine and Ben was pressing his blade down onto her neck.

For a moment, she wondered if she might die, but then she noticed Ben's grip grow looser. He stopped pushing her into the ground and simply held her there. Some of the fog cleared out of his eyes.

This didn't make any sense. Why would Maleficent stop focusing on him right when she had Mal pinned?

"You need to kill her," Ben stammered. It was his voice without Maleficent behind it. "I know you can… please?"

"You need to go back into the barrier," Mal hissed. She wanted to spit out Xavier's name, but if Maleficent got any sort of hint who Ben was to her or what else she had on the line, then this battle would be better than over.

"Mal…" Ben whispered. His grip was loosening even more now. Mal imagined a target painted on the side of his head. If she could just knock him out, then…"

"I love you," he whispered.

Her eyes snapped back to his. Why on earth would he say that now? After everything?

A prompt came to mind: "Grab him. Get the sword."

She seized his arms and flipped them again before she managed to wrest the sword out of his hands. Ben's head dropped onto the ground as he gasped for breath and Mal got to her feet, raising the sword triumphant over her head. His eyes returned to their normal color.

Mal, in turn, felt hers color over.

She tried to bring the sword down - she couldn't. She tried to cast a spell - nothing.

While she'd been fighting with Ben, she'd lost focus. Her barrier had dropped. And then Maleficent had issued a command that had seemed perfectly reasonable - without her even knowing.

Mal felt her mind lockdown. Ben got to his feet. He was frowning at her. He reached forward - first for her face before he changed his mind and set his palm down on her shoulder. "Mal?" he asked. "I'm okay. I promise. I'm sorry I attacked you."

Mal flung her left hand out and smacked him. The blow was so hard he flew back and landed against another thick rock, gasping for breath. Mal shrunk the sword down and put it in her pocket - it'd be safe there and hard to retrieve. Ben was staring at her as he slowly connected the pieces and, for the first time from him, she could see real fear. It was a strange look for the King of Auradon.

Then Mal summoned her powers around her, and the world became walls of fire.

* * *

Audrey was, thankfully, out of the tall building with both of the children when the bubble popped. The ground had started shaking again just as Jay had set Belle down in the grass outside of the building. Xavier was babbling on Audrey's hip as he examined her earrings, which had been in for a few days now. Everyone looked down, and then everyone looked up as the green barrier flashed once and then burst open with a sound like firecrackers. Evie gasped.

With the barrier gone, dust was thrown into the air. Within seconds, it was as if the world was gone. Xavier began to cry and rub his eyes with tiny fists. Audrey shushed him as she stumbled, trying to find her balance, and almost tripped over Belle. She dropped to the ground beside her. "Mom," Belle whined, bouncing up and down on the earth and trying to hold onto Audrey's arm. "Where's Mal?"

"We have to get out of here," Evie shouted. "Everyone, head for the safe place!"

"Evie?" Audrey called and Evie appeared out of the dust. "What's going on?"

"Maleficent got Mal," Evie said, dropping down and reaching for Xavier. "Come on, we have to get out of here. It's not safe!"

"Take Belle!" Audrey told Evie and pulled Belle's arm off of hers. "I can carry Xavier but I can't carry Belle."

"Mom!" Belle began to cry. Her leg was broken, her dad was gone, and now her mom was handing her off too. "I want to stay with you!"

Audrey kissed her forehead quickly while struggling to her feet. The ground was still shaking, but she was slowly growing used to it. "Come on, baby. Go with Evie and I'll see you soon. And when this is all over, you and I will go somewhere special together where we can both get help, okay?"

Belle continued crying as Evie scooped her up. She took Audrey's hand and helped her to her feet. "Come on, it's this way," she said.

Audrey pushed Xavier's head down into her shoulder to shield him from the onslaught of dust and trudged over the shaking earth. Evie showed her the way into the trees, where others were marching. Soon, they came upon a giant cement hut that was two stories high and partially buried. The windows were so thick she couldn't see inside of them. Despite the fact the earth was shaking, this structure didn't move or crack in the slightest.

Everyone was dusty inside and stamping off dirt on large mats whilst also trying to move inside and make room for other people. Evie carried Belle over to where Carlos was sitting in a chair, looking broken. She set Belle down beside him and gasped out: "What do we do?"

Carlos snorted. "Mal's gone," he said. "We're done for."

"She wouldn't have left," Evie protested. "She gave Maleficent up, remember? She wouldn't go back!"

"I think she did," Carlos snapped. "And it's only a matter of time before she comes to kill us too. I told you from the beginning, Evie, the day Mal decides she's done is the day we're all done."

"But what about Xavier?" Audrey asked. "He's her son."

Carlos ran a hand through his hair. "The thing about Mal is… she's always searching for that sense of belonging. And she wants to feel like her mother wants her around. Like she belongs with her mom. I guess we gave her a bit of that. I guess Ben did too, and that's why she tripped over herself for him. And Xavier… I mean, when someone thinks you're the sun, how could you not feel like you belong?" Carlos shook his head. "I guess it wasn't enough to keep her."

"That's wrong," Audrey shook her head. "No, there's got to be some other explanation."

"Oh, and what would that be, Princess?" Jay spat. Audrey jumped - she hadn't seen Jay sneaking up on them from behind. He pulled a knife out of his bag to whittle at the end of a stick. "Carlos is right. Mal left. She's always looking for someone to… welcome her with open arms. And now she'll kill us all, hoping that her mother will finally love her."

"No," Audrey insisted. "That's not the kind of person she is."

"Oh shut up!" Jay yelled. "Don't you understand? We're all going to die!"

Everyone turned. People were silent except for the little echoes of Jay's proclamation. He kept going. "What do you know? You're from Auradon, live in a castle, ignore everyone around you for years, and destroy your own marriage." Jay scoffed. "Ben's told us about you. We know what kind of person you are. You're just like her. You'll do anything to be able to live the way you want to live with the title you want to have. Even chase away a guy's friends and keep him isolated."

"Maybe that's me," Audrey snapped with tears filling her eyes. "But that's not Mal!"

Across the room, the door snapped open. Everyone turned around to see someone shaking the dust out of his hair. He was so dirty that no one recognized him until he cleared his throat and began to yell.

"Mal's been spelled!" Ben shouted at the top of his lungs. His throat was scratchy, but he was still clear. "She's under some sort of mind-control charm!"

"I told you so!" Audrey snapped at Jay. She pushed him back a little, which probably did her more damage than him, and then dropped to the ground and gave Xavier to Belle. Then, she marched across the room. People got out of her way as she went. She put her hands on Ben's arms. "Where is she now?" she demanded.

"Heading back towards Auradon. The city… the city is flattened." Ben's shoulders dropped in disappointment. "She'll hit Charmington soon. I think they're going to head for the Isle and break it open all the way."

Well, we need to stop her," Audrey declared. "What can we do to stop her?"

Ben stared and fumbled for words for several seconds. "Well… the mind control spell only works if Maleficent is focusing and if Mal has that cursed sword on her. She put it in her pocket - there's no way we can get it out. But if we break Maleficent's focus for long enough, Mal might be able to break free herself."

"I'm sorry," Uma appeared on Audrey's left side. "About five things happened at once and I got distracted. How do you expect to distract Maleficent long enough for Mal to get out from under a mind-control spell? And what if she doesn't?"

"Well, then we'll go to plan B," Audrey replied as if it were obvious.

"What's plan B?" Uma asked.

"Not sure yet. Let's go." Audrey waved for Evie, Jay, and Carlos to join them. Evie hesitated, then kissed Doug and their baby on the cheek and head respectively before heading over. The boys followed behind. Uma looked impressed.

"I knew there was something I liked about you," she laughed. "How are we going to catch up?"

"Our carriage," Audrey decided. "Ben, you know how to drive, right?"

Ben shook his head. "I know how to crash," he corrected her.

"I'll drive," Uma decided. "And before we go-" She kicked a barrel and something metal rattled inside. We may need some swords."

"We may," Audrey agreed. She glanced back to Belle and Xavier, who were huddled into a corner. As Uma handed her a sword, she took a deep breath. Doug moved closer to the kids - he'd be just fine to watch over them. Still, she wandered over, knelt beside Belle, and kissed her forehead. "I promise, when all of this is over, you and I are going to spend lots of time together. We'll play games, and read books, and we're going to be very, very happy."

"And dad?" Belle murmured, looking behind Audrey's shoulder. Audrey glanced behind her. She hadn't realized Ben had followed her.

"And dad," she agreed.

Ben knelt and picked up both kids. Belle sniffled and buried her face into his chest. "You'll be okay," he whispered. "Just stay here and everything will be fine. We'll be back soon."

"I'll watch them," Doug volunteered. "It'll be okay."

Ben kissed Belle on the cheek and then Xavier's little head. Xavier wasn't quite sure what to make of his dad getting back up and towering over them. Audrey gave them a last little smile before they headed to the door. Uma and Jay were working on wrenching it open. Ben grabbed Audrey's arm to stop her.

"That was cool," he whispered. "I haven't seen you… come alive like that before."

Audrey shrugged and didn't meet his eyes. "Let's just get out of here," she muttered. "She needs help."

The door was wrenched open at the same time Ben spoke, so Audrey missed whatever he was going to say. Outside, the wind was howling and screaming. Clouds of dust rushed inside. Six warriors pushed their way out before the door was shut again and all was quiet.

* * *

Across the way, Mal was leaving a path of destruction. uprooted tree trunks and gigantic boulders reduced to silt piles. Clouds of lightning were her escorts as she blazed through the forests, flattening the hills into charred pathways and filling the rivers with steaming gunk. She'd never used so much power in such a destructive way before.

There came a mountain and Mal threw out her hand and watched it crumble from the peaks down. The ground shifted and shook as she pushed everything down to her level and continued her march. Up ahead was Charmignton and beyond that was the bay where they'd first landed.

She was so close. So close to doing everything Maleficent had ever wanted to do. Using this power was so good… so fulfilling… her head felt fuzzy from all the new and strange feelings that were rushing into her from the magic. Almost there and-

Something whizzed past her nose. Was that… an arrow?

"Now!" Someone yelled from inside the dust storm, and a group of people rushed out of the dust. They were so small, despite their height, and seemed so silly armed with their swords and knives and bows. Mal raised her hands.

This should be fun.


	9. Chapter 9

Ben hoped to never see anyone in this state again. He barely even recognized Mal as she flattened the Arendellian southern mountains with a gesture and glare. Her skin was blue with oxygen miscoloring and she flashed and flared like some sort of living fire that was crackling with power. All of the plant life was sucked from around her as she walked. Lichens, mosses, and grasses withered into dry and cracked earth at her feet. The blue sky vanished as blue and purple storm clouds swallowed up the horizon, swirling around her like a hurricane without an eye.

They rushed in towards her, but the fog grew thick. Ben felt small particles stinging and burning his skin as they struggled to her. It was hard to breathe. He had always felt breathless around her, but this was like he was swallowing electricity. Like she was trying to pull his heart up his throat. The others were also struggling - Audrey especially could scarcely keep her balance.

Mal moved rather slowly for someone with so much raw power. Her goal clearly was to ruin as much as possible, not rush to the Isle of the Lost. She was doing a good job, too.

Uma drew back with a bow and shot towards Mal's leg. The arrow's flight path was immediately distorted and pulled upwards, towards the sky. It ended up skidding past the tip of her nose. Mal whipped around. When her green gaze landed on where their group was hidden, Ben felt an individual flame lit in every pore on his body. He'd never been more terrified of anything in his life.

Jay leapt first. He batted the smoke that was wafting off the ground away and jumped forward into Mal's line of sight. "Mal!" He shouted. His voice echoed in the vacuum of air Mal was creating. "You need to stop!"

Mal batted her hand and several thousand needle-like green shards of glass began sprouting out of the ground. Jay panicked and jumped away. Carlos snatched the back of his jacket and yanked him into the group and onto safe ground. Ground that immediately opened up beneath them.

Carlos and Jay fell with a shout but Jay caught the ledge of the ledge and pulled them both back up. At the bottom of the chasm was a swirling pool of lit magma that was quickly rising to the surface.

"Move!" Ben shouted, grabbing Jay's arm as he got back to his feet. "We've got to get away from this!"

Something hard struck his cheek. Ben grabbed it and looked skyward. A pebble landed beside him on the ground, then another and another.

It was now raining rocks.

They scrambled away from the chasm as similar cracks appeared in the earth. Lava began to flow from the cracks as they jumped to higher ground. Debris continued swirling in the air.

Ben helped Jay, Audrey, and Uma up onto a boulder. As he did, the lava was slowing down. He could feel and smell it from twenty paces away, but Mal's magic swept it mostly back down into the cracks in the earth. Still, not safe.

"Mal!" Evie yelled at the top of her lungs, though Ben was sure most of the sound was lost to the wind. "You can't do this!"

A lump of fiery green coal was shot out of the smoke. It slammed into Evie's cheek and knocked her back, off of the boulder. Mal's Maleficent-tinged laugh echoed all around them. Ben caught her before she could tumble into the cracks in the earth around them. A blueish burn had made the skin bubble up on her face.

The earth shook and the boulder split in two. Ben, Evie, and Carlos were hurled to one side, and Jay, Audrey, and Uma to the other. Ben heard shouts of pain from Carlos/

"Maleficent!" he tried, getting to his feet. "I know this is you!"

The rock rain stopped and out fo the fog, a shadow appeared. It was Mal, who crossed her arms and smiled like the Cheshire cat at him. "Oh, it's the king!" Maleficent cackled through her voice. Then, Mal's chin dropped to her chest and she went unresponsive. Maleficent appeared out of nothing beside her daughter and drew her fingers down her cheek. "Isn't she pretty? She's grown up so much."

Ben's heart thudded. Was Maleficent trying to imply…?

Maleficent hummed a little. "Mommy's little bomb," she hummed. "I knew she was powerful, but this… this is glorious." She gestured at all the destruction around them.

"It'll certainly be interesting to see how she reacts once you take that spell off her," Ben replied. He couldn't raise his voice too high in this smog. "You can't keep her under that spell forever. You'll have to let her go eventually, and she'll destroy you."

"She won't destroy me," Maleficent disagreed, petting her fingers through Mal's hair. "She's always wanted me to love her. What happened in the forest… that was just her panicking because of her friends."

"Take it off now," Ben challenged. "If you're so confident."

Maleficent narrowed her eyes.

"The moment you go to sleep, the moment you turn your back, the moment you let your guard down, you're a dead woman," Ben told her.

"I don't need her much longer," Maleficent sighed. "It's a shame - if she had joined me, she could have lived. Now she's disposable. Useful only for her powers."

The left side of Mal's face twitched, which was odd because she was supposed to be completely under Maleficent's spell. Ben zeroed in on the movement.

"You won't be able to kill her," he mumbled. "She won't let you do that."

Maleficent run a hand across Mal's shoulder's and Mal's head snapped back up. "You're annoying," they said, echoing each other. "Little Beasty King alone in his castle. You didn't pay attention to the Isle of the Lost, so pay attention while we destroy everything you love."

Uma raised her sword and rushed forward with a battle cry, but Mal threw a hand out and the sword imploded. Uma was blasted back and her head slammed hard into the ground. Ben willed himself to stay still, staring straight at Mal and trying to keep from blinking against the dust as much as possible.

"Kill him," Maleficent requested, walking a bit behind Mal and watching with interest as Mal's hand immediately went to her pocket. She pulled out a sword - the same sword that Maleficent had commanded Mal to take and which was serving as an anchor over her will, enlarged it, and readied it in her hands. "Go on, Darling. Do it for us. For everything he did to us."

Ben's mind was racing. Should he say something? Should he try and argue? He wanted to remind Mal of their son but if it didn't work and Maleficent realized, then it really would be game over. Instead, he prepared to duck if Mal decided to swing that sword at his head.

Maleficent suddenly frowned at Mal, as if she had said something incredulous. "Go on," she barked.

Mal raised the sword above her head and Ben watched, expressionless, as it inched down at an angle toward his neck. The slower she went, the more confident he got.

Maleficent went stiff.

"Mal," he whispered and took a half step closer to her. The cold metal hit his neck but didn't press any further. "You know you don't want to kill me."

"It'd be easier," she muttered, and her voice didn't have Maleficent's echo in it.

"Come on, Mal," Ben shook his head. "Are you really going to leave me alone?"

The green light vanished from Mal's eyes and she snapped the blade away from Ben's neck. "No!" She declared. She turned around towards Maleficent and the ground caught fire at her feet. Her skin on her hands started burning away as she trembled to hold the cursed sword. It began to break apart. Ben had to look away. His skin felt like it was on fire. In the distance, he could hear Maleficent screaming, begging for some sort of mercy, and there was this horrible ripping sound that was like velcro except he knew without a doubt it couldn't be velcro and that made him sick. Then there was prickling, like the sound glass made when it got too hot, and he was thrown back.

His body skidded across the earth. By some miracle, he avoided falling into the chasms. For several minutes, Ben couldn't see anything but white - so great had been Mal's explosion in front of him. But then he started to make out shapes again and could see the fuzzy outlines of the ground.

Someone took his shoulders and hoisted him to his feet. Ben gasped for breath. He could see the outlines of someone with a vest. "I can't see," he gasped as they tried to set him upright. "Give me a minute. Where's Audrey? Where's Maleficent? Where's Mal?"

"Over here," Jay replied gruffly. "Audrey's fine. Maleficent… we're not sure but there's a lot of blood over here so we're assuming she's… gone. Mal is… down."

"Down?" Ben repeated. He rubbed his eyes and the white shapes took on a bit more color. Jay turned him around and he spotted - off in the distance - purple. He tossed aside Jay's help and stumbled over the ground, where he almost tripped over the edge of a crater that had appeared around Mal.

He gradually was able to see where the bumps in the path were and that helped as he hurried to her side and dropped to his knees. She was lying spread-out and was very, very pale. He felt up and down her neck with nimble, numb fingers. No beat. No thrumming anything. No pulse.

"Jay? Evie?" Ben began to shout. "Carlos? Uma? I can't get a pulse!"

Pale hands budged him aside. It was Audrey, looking grimy and exhausted and with a hot bit of rock that had melted onto her ear. She waved him aside and felt up Mal's neck with one hand before reaching down to press her fingers at her wrist. "We need to try CPR," she whispered. Her voice was hoarse from breathing all the charred smoke.

"We already tried," Uma announced, coming up behind them with a shake of her head. "She's cold, guys. She burned herself out breaking that spell."

Ben sat back on his heels and stared down at Mal in something like shock. How could this have happened? This was… all his fault. He covered his face with his hands and exhaled, trying to let all the air out of his lungs. Oh, what would happen now? What was he going to tell Hades and Xavier when he was older?

What was he going to do?

Audrey muttered something, and Jay let out a startled sound - something between a scoff and a laugh. Ben tore his eyes off Mal, wiped them on the back of his hand, and looked to her. "What?" he gasped. "I missed that."

Audrey pulled her ponytail out of her hair, staring at the ground as she did. She raked her fingernails up and down her scalp. "True Love's Kiss," she mumbled. "Works every time."

Ben's mouth fell open. Was it… Audrey who had suggested that? Audrey, whose mouth had curled with jealousy when he went to see his mother and Audrey who was paranoid about everyone everywhere?

"Worth a shot," Evie muttered. "Old magic - might work."

"Audrey," Ben whispered. "You…" He trailed off when the words wouldn't come.

Audrey got to her feet, shaking a little, and stepped back. "Go on, Ben," she nodded. "Just give it a shot."

Ben stared. Evie, Uma, Carlos, and Jay all stepped a little closer to see. Ben's hands were shaking.

He slowly picked her head off the ground. She was stiff even though she hadn't been lying there for long. He kept his eyes on Audrey, but Audrey focused on Mal. Finally, he followed her gaze down.

Mal's mouth was shut and her eyes closed. Her cheeks seemed hollow as if there was no fat in them. Slowly, he leaned down and brought her up. Then he let his lips brush against hers. Nothing more than that.

It wouldn't work. The only reason he was doing it was because he'd wanted to kiss Mal at least once more ever since he left and because everyone was gathered around, expecting him to. He and Mal had known each other for mere months and no matter how electrifying and alluring she was, he couldn't call it love. Couldn't - it wasn't reasonable - there was no way -

Then Mal took a gasp underneath him and that train of thought stopped in its tracks. Her eyes snapped open and one hand seized his shoulder in a vice grip to support herself. Ben sat back up - half in surprise and half in fear that she'd smite him to the ends of Auradon. "It worked?" he asked.

Mal felt her mouth, apparently as shocked as he was.

"Mal!" Evie sank to her knees and took Mal's arm to help her to her feet. Ben let her go as Uma, too, came and helped her up. Mal leaned on them both for balance and continued looking back at Ben in shock. Ben didn't get up - he felt like his brain had flatlined and there was no shock that could revive it. Jay let out a breath and Carlos chuckled at his shock, then they both glanced at Audrey. Ben did too.

Audrey stood with her weight mostly on her right leg and her entire face unresponsive. She kept her arms crossed over her ribs as if bracing for a hit there. Ben swallowed. "Audrey?" he whispered and got to his feet. He reached for her hands, but she refused him. For several long moments, they stood at ends, and then Audrey relaxed and let Ben take her hands again. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I really am - I swear this doesn't mean-"

"I'm glad she's okay," Audrey cut him off. "And I'm glad Maleficent is gone. Let's go home."

* * *

The Villain Kid's city had been completely flattened to nothing but charred earth. Not even rubble stood in the places where Evie's home, the pavilion, or even Mal's giant fortress had been. Every toy and tool had been incinerated and every foundation turned over. Even the river had been dried up and overturned as if nothing had ever actually been there. Mal observed it all with dead eyes, avoiding Ben and keeping Xavier close to her chest. Most people avoided her with the same casual hate and fear that Ben had noticed in small amounts when he'd first come to them. After all, she'd destroyed the only home they'd ever had. Nothing was left except for a barren wasteland.

Evie cried with her face buried in Doug's shoulder. No eye was dry as everyone shuffled through the dust, looking for something - anything - they could salvage.

"Can't you just magic it all back?" Someone snapped at Mal and she flinched away from them, covering Xavier's ears from the loud sound.

But even Mal's magic had temporarily gone offline. When she'd broken the spell, she'd overdone it. It'd probably be a long time before she could start using it again without hurting herself.

Ben stayed by Audrey's side, keeping his hand in hers as often as she'd let him, and trying to avoid Mal just as much as she was avoiding him. Every second was pain and confusion.

The sun was setting when shouts came over the bluff. A line of horses came and Ben recognized the familiar coat of arms on the shields. "Chad!" he shouted. His voice echoed through the nothingness. "Over here!"

Chad had, of course, seen the Arendelle Mountains be flattened. They'd amassed an army to investigate once everything had stopped. And now it was Cinderellasburg's job to liberate the royal family plus every single villain child in the area.

"Where do we take them?" Chad asked, flabbergasted once he'd heard Ben's basic explanation.

"Out," Ben said simply. "Fill the hotels and inns in Arendelle and Cinderellasburg first. I'll take the rest to Auradon." He paused. "If they need doctors - any of them - it'd probably be best to take them with me. Out of the three of us, we have the most doctors per person."

Audrey laid a hand on Ben's shoulder and squeezed it. "I want to take Belle back to the palace to get her leg checked now," she whispered. It was the first thing she'd said to him since suggesting Ben kiss Mal. "Are you coming with?"

"No," Ben shook his head. "I… need to see everyone else out. Can you take her safely?"

"I can," Audrey agreed.

"Okay." Ben leaned down to kiss Audrey's cheek out of force of habit and she stopped him with an open palm. Then, straightening herself and righting her frame, she extended a hand instead. Ben shook it, more than a little confused.

"Chad." Audrey held a hand to signal their old friend. She pointed along the way to Mal. "That woman is very weak. She'll need a horse to get out. Find one for her."

The sun set and the night grew dark. Ben saw Audrey and Belle off with the first wave of people heading to Auradon. He tried to keep an eye on Mal every time he walked past to make sure she was handling things okay and that she didn't need any help with Xavier, but when the sun rose she was gone with lots of the others.

It took three days to get everyone out. Supplies were called in, but it was still a way away from Cinderellasburg and Arendelle even with the new paved area that Mal had created in her storm. The sun was blistering without any kind of trees or protection. The concrete building still stood, and it was here that most resided and shied away from the sun.

Finally, Chad put the reigns of the last horse in Ben's hands and told him that he was it - everyone else had gone. Ben and Chad exchanged numb thank-yous before Ben began the trek back to Auradon with a few guards to keep him safe and make sure he wouldn't be ambushed on the way.

The trip gave him time to think: What was going to happen to his families? How was he ever going to fix things with Audrey now? What was he going to do about Mal?

He found Audrey asleep in the master bedroom when he arrived at two in the morning. He stood in the doorway and watched her for a moment and then turned to sleep on the couch instead. The next thing he knew, the sun was shining in his eyes and an outside breeze was blowing through his hair.

Audrey was sitting in a chair across from him. He sat up slowly so he wouldn't startle her and ran a hand down his face. "Hey," she said.

"Hey," he replied.

"You're up late."

"What time is it?"

"One. When did you get home?"

"Two." Ben yawned and stretched his arms out in front of him. "Where's Belle?"

Audrey chewed on her cheek. "With the other kids," she muttered. "There's about twenty left, though your mom and I have been placing them into foster families."

Ben stared at her incredulously. "You've been working with my mom?" he asked. Audrey nodded without a change of face. That was unnerving. He was used to knowing exactly what she was thinking based on her face and eyes. He sighed. "Did her leg get checked out?"

"Yes," Audrey replied. "It's a very, very bad break. Of course, we knew that but…" She turned a page of a book in her lap. Ben blinked - he hadn't realized she'd had it. When was the last time Audrey had read anything? "She'll need physical therapy. And now that Mal's hypnosis spell as worn off, she's in a bunch of pain. They're going to do a second surgery because they think one of her nerves is like… messed up in her leg. Should be fine after lots of work, but they've still got to do a decompression surgery."

Ben swallowed hard. Audrey glanced up from her book. "I got the surgery scheduled already and she's out of school for a while. We can homeschool her until she's good enough to go back."

"Sounds reasonable," Ben agreed. "What about you?"

"I…" Audrey took a deep breath. "Evie and Uma were right. Hypoglycemia. It's… insane that something so small caused so much damage. But essentially, Belle wasn't in my belly in the best position, and so she cut off some of the blood flow to my pancreas. Cue long-term damage that never got fixed. It must have started around month five or so, which is when I started feeling horrible all the time and everything. I just didn't notice it wasn't normal because I'd never had a baby before."

Ben nodded along to her words. "Do you have to have surgery too?" he asked.

"So far, no," Audrey shook her head. "They're giving me artificial enzymes to make up for what my pancreas can't do. And making me eat lots of sugary foods." She leaned her head back and sighed. "I never thought I'd get sick of Dr. Pepper," she mumbled aloud.

Ben snorted. It had been her favorite drink, ages back. "I'm sorry about… what happened out West. I never planned for… anything to happen like that."

Audrey stared at him, procured a slim stack of papers that she tucked into her book to mark her place, and set the book on the ottoman in between them. Ben traced the papers that were jutting out of the stack with his eyes. "Mal's here," she said softly. "Went to Cinderellasburg and Chad sent her in for a doctor. She's still out of magic. Doesn't come out of her room much. I went by to talk once, but she didn't want to see me. I don't blame her."

A knock came at the door. Ben turned. It was a footman, so Ben immediately started trying to straighten his hair. "Queen Audrey," they called and bowed a little. "Your carriage is waiting out front."

"Thank you," Audrey bid him before he disappeared into the hall. She turned back to Ben. "Xavier is here too. She hasn't let him out of her sight. I think she's paranoid. I get it - it's hard for me to let Belle go play - let alone not know where she is."

"I've got to figure out…" Ben put his head in his hands. "I don't know where to have her live. It feels wrong to not have her live in the palace when Xavier will have to come here anyway but it also doesn't seem quite… fitting to have her live with us here. I mean… I don't know."

"I think I can solve that problem for you," Audrey muttered.

She got up from her chair and then sat back down on the ottoman. Their knees were about three inches apart as she picked up the book and pushed it into his lap. Ben squinted at the cover. "Enchanted," he muttered. "Goodness, this story's old." He opened the book to where Audrey had marked it - near the end. In glorious full-color illustration was Robert Phillip, leaning over poor and lifeless Giselle. That made Ben pause. He studied Audrey. His wife seemed exhausted and stressed and somehow at peace with herself. "Is there something you want me to learn from this story?" he asked. The story that happened to contain the guy's fiancee telling the guy to kiss the other girl before it was too late.

Audrey gestured at the papers. They were facing the wrong way. He flipped them back over and his breath caught in his throat a little. Across the top read: "Divorce Agreement."

He looked back up at Audrey. "Is this… what you want?" he asked. "No more us?"

"When was there an us, Ben?" Audrey sighed. "You tried so hard and I… I only took advantage of that. Plus… being queen is hard. I'm not cut out for it."

"We could fix it. I'll… I'll stay, Audrey. I'll stay if you will."

"Ben, I destroyed all your friendships and your relationship with our mom and everyone," Audrey sighed. "I'm not going to ruin a literal true love for… greed." She ran a hand through her hair. "What I want is to go back to Auroria and be with my parents before they die. I already sent a message ahead to my mom. You keep your castle, I'll take my dowry and my dividends back and you keep your inheritance and we can part ways so we both have a better shot at life."

"And Belle?" Ben asked.

Audrey chewed on her cheek. "I know you love her and she's your daughter, but I was hoping you'd agree to let me have her on weekdays during the school year, and I'll bring her for weekends and breaks here unless I ask you ahead of time. We can do vice versa in the summertime."

"Would you be able to do that?" Ben asked. "With your blood sugar and everything?"

"Yeah," Audrey nodded. "We both need time to heal anyways. I was thinking I could take her for a while so you and Mal can get things sorted out and we can get this finalized. You could get married again and maybe even have more kids if you wanted. Then we could start switching her back and forth. When she gets older, she can pick and choose a little bit more."

"Are you sure you'll be able to do it? I don't want her going the way she was before… she's got to at least make her bed and clean her room."

"I'll make sure she does. You were right. She needs to do it. And I'm sure you'll keep track of her here too." Audrey put a hand on his knee and squeezed. "She needs her dad."

Ben skimmed the papers. She'd written a few things in pink pen - how neither she nor Ben could take Belle places without a little notice and who held medical responsibilities and a few other things. Audrey waited for his response and fidgeted. Finally, when he was done, he set the pages aside and pulled Audrey off the ottoman and into a hug. Tears had started running down his face at some point, though he wasn't sure when. "Thank you," he whispered in her shoulder. "I just… thank you."

Audrey patted his head. Ben sniffled and straightened up, wiping his eyes. "You… you don't have to, I swear," he said. "I meant it - I really will work things out with you if that's what you-"

"This is what I want," Audrey cut him off, putting her hand on the discarded pages before gathering them up and handing them back to Ben. "And this is what you need."

It was as if thirty elephants had been lifted off his shoulders. He took the papers carefully, well aware they contained his whole future, and wiped his eyes. "Where do I sign?" he asked.

Audrey pulled a pen out of her sleeve. She pointed out the places that required his signature and then left them on the ottoman. "Can you file them?" she asked. "You know better than I do about things like that."

"I'll take care of it," Ben agreed. He hesitated, then took his ring off his finger and offered it to her.

Audrey made a face. "I have your other one," she pointed out. "The blue one. You could keep that one and maybe use it for when you and Mal get married."

Ben chuckled softly. "Or you could use it?" he suggested. "Whenever you find someone."

A smile crossed Audrey's face. Still, she shook her head. "Keep it," she told him. "You bought it yourself. I had nothing to do with it."

So Ben tucked the ring into his pocket.

Audrey's room had been cleaned out, but Belle's remained the same. They found her with the other girls. She had a wheelchair now and a new medical doll since the old one had been incinerated. She was telling the other kids all about how she and her mom were going to go on a long vacation to visit her Grandma and Grandpa, and how she'd have two rooms. Ben didn't think the news fazed her much, though he did worry about when she got older. Hopefully, Audrey could find someone she loved, and then Belle could have two examples of real marriage instead of thinking that what he and Audrey had had was remotely close to normal.

It was odd to know he'd have two families now. One with Audrey and little Belle and one with Mal and Xavier, if she'd have him. Two parts of his life that were equally astounding.

He saw them off from the front circle in a carriage that would take them to Auroria and then headed upstairs.

Mal's door was on the left in a corridor three floors up. All the small children and adults were downstairs near the playrooms or out on the gardens, so it was silent up here. Her door was closed, but he opened it softly without a knock and saw her sitting, curled up on the window chair, with Xavier in her lap playing with toys against her collarbone. She was craning her head to see outside.

"Mal," he called and she spun around. Xavier looked up, startled, then turned and gave Ben the wide-eyed "how-dare-you" stare for disturbing the peace. Ben laughed and stepped inside.

Mal swung her feet off the window seat and used the wall to stand up. "Ben," she replied and glanced at the door to see if anyone was behind him. "I didn't know you were back."

"Surprise," Ben muttered. He kept walking forward until he was able to rest a hand on the bedpost a few feet from her. "You feeling better?"

"I am," Mal agreed. "Is everyone out?"

"They are," Ben nodded. "What have you been up to?"

"Settling things." Mal ran a hand through her hair. "My, uh, dad came to see me. I don't know if I said anything, but, uh…"

"Hades," Ben agreed. "Where is he now?"

"Downstairs," Mal's voice wavered. "We… sorted a few things out. He's going to come and visit Xavier and I… but he's also going to go back to the Underworld. Says he has a special place for my mom's soul." She swallowed and leaned against the wall. "As soon as I'm able to… move and everything again… I'll be out of your hair."

"To where?" he asked.

"Back west," Mal mumbled. "It's not good for me to be around you and Audrey and…" she sighed. "I'll let Xavier come back, but…"

"They're not going to rebuild. The land is uninhabitable. They've started integrating the villain kids into society. People seem to like them a lot." Ben crossed his arms and took a step closer to her. "If you want to go, fine, but I was hoping I could convince you to stay."

Mal closed her eyes. "Ben, you picked Audrey. I respect that."

"We're done."

"Who's done?"

"Audrey and I." Ben pointed out the window. In the far distance, the carriage was visible. "She asked to get out. She wants to live with her parents and doesn't want to be a queen and wants to spend more time with Belle."

"What?" Mal's tone was disbelieving. She took a step to peer outside the window and Ben stepped up behind her. When she turned to see what he was doing, he picked her up. She and Xavier together. She shrieked a little as he sat them down on the bed. Somehow, his hand found her hand and he squeezed hard.

"Listen," he gasped, kneeling down on the floor as Xavier held onto her shirt for dear life. "I've never done this before in my life - you know I haven't - and I don't have a ring for you but I need you to know that I _love_ you, Mal Bertha. Really, I swear it. And I know I'm lousy and I never checked up on you all those months and it's been hard for you but if you give me the chance I swear I'll spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to you and Xavier. Will you please, _please, -"_

" _Yes!"_ Mal cut him off, ripping her hand out of his and dropping to the ground beside him. She set Xavier on the ground, where he sat and looked very stunned with everything happening, and leaned in to kiss Ben. When she tried to pull away, Ben put a hand to the back of her head to keep her there. She was crying; he was crying; Xavier was starting to whine because he didn't know what was going on. Ben pulled her onto his lap and then picked up Xavier too to squeeze them both to his chest.

His true love. His true love and their son. And their start at a new life.


End file.
